The Tree of Knowledge
by Silk Lily
Summary: Haruno Sakura is one of Iwagakure's finest: a weapon wielded by her village. But when the young kunoichi allows her conscience to get the best of her, what should have been a routine assassination mission goes awry, and she finds herself a prisoner of war in Konoha. Slowly, the lines between enemy and comrade begin to blur, and good and evil are no longer so easy to tell apart. AU
1. Sin

Chapter One

Sin

The inn was dingy and badly-lit. The cheap yellow wallpaper was peeling where it met the ceiling, and here and there were smears of what looked like old blood. There were uniform, angular scars in the plaster of the wall, as though projectiles or knives had been buried there before, and the place reeked of sweat, dirt, and guilt.

Sakura kept her distaste hidden behind an impassive mask as she shut the thick wooden door behind her. Her line of work frequently brought her through these kinds of establishments, but the young woman still felt a lingering aversion to the place, nonetheless.

She strode up to the front desk and rapped on the wood of the counter top twice. Within a few moments, a small, rat-like man had appeared from a dingy backroom, wiping his hands hurriedly on a ragged dish towel as he approached.

His gaze fell appraisingly upon Sakura, and her emerald eyes narrowed slightly as she observed it roaming across her form. After a long moment, he looked up and smiled lecherously.

"Welcome to my humble inn. How may I be of assistance?" His voice was oily and slippery, and Sakura had to fight back a disgusted shiver at the sound.

"I'm looking for someone." She said flatly.

The man's countenance changed suddenly, his eyes narrowing and his expression becoming guarded.

"Oh?" His tone was carefully neutral, no doubt kept that way by years of practice.

Sakura smirked. She had assumed correctly, that this particular inn was a popular hangout for criminals and missing nin; it was precisely what she had been looking for.

"Yeah. You wouldn't mind helping me out, would you?" She inquired innocently, leaning an elbow against the counter.

There was a pause, which to an outsider would have appeared a moment of indecision on the innkeeper's part. But Sakura had used the interlude to covertly slide a neatly folded bill under the corner of one of the man's accounting books.

The innkeeper's gaze darted around the empty foyer, before he covertly thumbed the bill, and slid it into the pocket of his apron.

"Who're you looking for?" He asked, his tone so low that a civilian would have had to strain to hear. His gaze was trained downwards towards his desk, and he was shuffling his papers around as though organizing them.

"Tsubasa." Sakura replied, casually examining her cuticles.

The innkeeper nodded curtly. He got at least a dozen people a week looking for the man in question.

Fumbling, he grabbed a pen, and scribbled an address onto a grubby scrap of paper. Slapping it down on the counter, he shoved it in Sakura's direction, keeping his eyes studiously trained downwards. The young woman observed the bead of sweat working its way down his temple, as she took the scrap between two fingers, and tucked it into a pouch hanging from her belt.

"I appreciate your assistance, sir." She said.

The man grunted noncommittally, obviously eager for her to be gone. Sakura echoed this sentiment, and within a few moments was out of the begrimed establishment, and onto the equally dirty streets.

Tetsumura was a large town in the northwestern corner of Grass Country. It had a reputation as a gambling and drinking den, and a hub for illegal trade and smuggling. It also happened to be Sakura's place of birth. Not that she felt much of a connection to the foul place.

It wasn't uncommon for orphans and refugee children from the smaller countries to end up in shinobi villages; things had been unsettled for decades before the war had broken out, and Sakura was just another casualty of that turmoil. But despite being from Grass, she had been living in Iwa for fourteen years, and barely remembered a life before the hidden village.

In any case, the only reason Sakura found herself in Tetsumura now was because of the town's reputation for harboring illegal trade; she was on a A-ranked mission to apprehend a merchant who was smuggling iron over the border into Fire. The man was supplying Konoha with sorely needed raw materials for weapons smithing, and it was vital that he be taken out.

Sakura reached into the pouch at her belt, and drew out the address the innkeeper had given her. It was in the Fireside District, one of the roughest in town—not that Sakura had anything to worry about; her forehead-protector would keep wise men away, and her devastating strikes would take care of the fools.

She set off down the street, her pace measured and her eyes sweeping her surroundings vigilantly. Night was just beginning to fall, and the more nefarious characters, who had kept to the shadows in daytime, were peeking out of their burrows.

The streets were narrow, and of nothing more than packed dirt. The smell of urine and cheap whiskey was predominant, and even as twilight descended, no lanterns were lit. This was the kind of town that thrived on darkness.

In mere minutes, Sakura found herself venturing into the heart of the city; the Fireside District rose up around her, crumbling walls and abandoned warehouses looming. Scantily-clad women leaned against door frames, the tips of their cigarettes glowing against the thickening darkness, as off-duty 'workmen' yelled crude propositions from the street. Sakura passed three men engaged in a fight, and as she watched, one was knifed in the gut, his pained gurgle abruptly cut off as the third man slit his throat.

By this point, the young kunoichi would have taken to the roofs, had they been sturdy enough: but most were of nothing more than thin aluminum, and she didn't trust them to hold up to her weight. Once or twice she encountered trouble from a drunken vagrant or someone who thought to rob her. In the first case, a flash of the kunai was enough to drive the idiot off. With the second man, a punch to the throat and a hearty shove into a brick wall—which may or may not have cracked upon impact—was sufficient to convince him to leave her alone.

Sakura located the address easily enough. It was an abandoned warehouse near the edge of town, and as she approached, she could make out a very faint glow from inside, as if a candle were lit. The door to the warehouse was locked, but with a bit of chakra to enhance her strength, it took merely a single push to send it flying open, revealing the room beyond.

The warehouse was brightly lit inside, candles and stained-glass lamps hanging from the rafters above. Obviously the windows had been muffled, otherwise the glow would have been unmistakable from the outside. The floor was polished wood, and draped with woven rugs and animal skins. The smell of liquor and smoke filled the air, and a soft buzz of sophisticated conversation accompanied the scent. Across the room, dozens of tables were set up, at which well-dressed gentlemen and ladies were gambling away stacks of ryo large enough to make Sakura's throat go dry.

Sakura was approached by a well-groomed man in a traditional kimono, who was obviously a servant of some kind.

"Welcome, Madam. What may I do for you this evening?"

The man's tone was perfectly polite, but his gaze swept over Sakura—in a very different manner than the innkeeper's had—and his expression grew stony as it lingered on her forehead-protector.

"I'm here to see Tsubasa." Sakura said, keeping her tone soft and moving closer so as to avoid drawing the attention of the wealthy patrons nearby.

The man nodded curtly, seeming to have expected this.

"If you will follow me, Madam."

He led her to the back of the warehouse, where an elegant bar was set up, and then into a back area which had been partitioned off from the gambling den. A mahogany desk sat in the corner, and several bookshelves—containing mostly accounting ledgers—lined the walls. It was brightly-lit, with several lamps and candles scattered across the room.

A good-looking man in his early forties was sitting behind the desk, intently reading a scroll spread out across the surface. He looked up as the servant knocked on the partition to make their presence known.

As he stood, Sakura probed his chakra, and was unsurprised to find that, although barely above genin level, the man's reserves implied that he was a shinobi—most likely a missing nin past his prime. He was quite handsome, with aristocratic features, neatly-trimmed hair and a groomed goatee, and was dressed in well-fitted, elegant clothing, rings gleaming from three of his fingers.

Sakura inclined her head politely, and he smiled warmly at her in response.

"Thank you, Shiro. You may go." He told his servant. The man bowed low, before leaving Sakura alone in the makeshift office.

"May I offer you some tea...?"

He trailed off meaningfully, obviously fishing for a name. Sakura regarded him with flat eyes, her expression encouraging no further pleasantries. He chuckled slightly.

"I see. You're evidently here on business. Well then, what can I do for you?"

Tsubasa sat back down behind his desk, folding his arms across his stomach comfortably, and gesturing at the chair across the table. Sakura ignored the invitation, and remained standing.

"I require information." She said.

"That's generally the reason I find shinobi on my doorstep." The man said dryly, regarding her with sharp dark eyes.

"It's about the merchant, Magumi Akito."

"I know of him."

Sakura reached into her pouch and drew out a scroll, ignoring the way Tsuabasa's hands strayed under his desk at her movement, as though to be ready to draw a weapon. She crossed the room, and set it down on his desk.

"This is a statement from the Tsuchikage, informing you that your assistance with this matter is considered to be of the utmost importance to Iwa. You will be compensated, I assure you."

Tsubasa cracked the scroll, and there were a few minutes of silence as he read it. Sakura stood still with her arms clasped loosely behind her back, years of discipline serving to make her patient. After a short time, the man looked back up at Sakura, his expression suddenly calculating.

"Magumi is a very influential trader in Tetsumura, as I'm sure you're aware. If I were implicated in his...accident, things could get very complicated for me."

Sakura met Tsubasa's eyes steadily, her emerald gaze never wavering. After a moment of silence, she gave him a sweet smile, in stark juxtaposition to her next words.

"Well, Tsubasa-san, I could always gut you and rifle through your filing cabinets, but I try to avoid that sort of behavior whenever possible. I'm sure you would agree that your cooperation would be mutually beneficial."

The man stared at her for a few seconds, before throwing back his head and laughing heartily. His broad shoulders quaked with mirth and his brilliant white teeth flashed, as his guffaws slowly died down to quiet chuckles. A small, polite smile was still fixed across Sakura's face, as he met her gaze once more.

"You Iwa kunoichi." He snorted. "Never met a damned one of you who wasn't terrifying enough to get a grown man to piss himself."

Sakura's smiled widened slightly at this, and the man sighed.

"Alright then, I suppose you make a convincing argument. I have Magumi's schedule and trade route on file. If I recall, he's leaving for Fire Country tomorrow morning."

Tsubasa rose, and moved to one of the cabinets behind his desk. He located the file he was looking for quickly enough, and handed it to Sakura without any lingering hesitation.

"I expect that I will be contacted within the next week?"

The question was worded politely enough, but there was a warning undercurrent to it.

"Iwa shinobi keep their word."

The man chuckled darkly.

"I've yet to see evidence of_ that_ in my lifetime."

Sakura's beryl eyes sharpened, and for a moment there was total silence as they regarded one another warily.

"I do, at any rate." She said at last.

The man stared at her for a moment longer, before nodding slightly.

"Well then, I wish you a safe journey." He said, rising and bowing to her politely.

Sakura spared him a curt nod, and when he moved to escort her out of his office, she shook her head.

"I can see myself out." She said shortly.

Tsubasa fell back, his dark eyes focused on her so intently that it was only years of training which kept Sakura from squirming. His gaze never wavered as she exited his office, and the back of her neck continued to prickle, even as she slipped out of the warehouse and onto the darkened streets.

* * *

Magumi Akito rose with the sun. His caravan departed Tetsumura at half past five, the horses' hooves muffled with cloth, and the boys obediently sitting in the back of the wagon in complete silence. He was always cautious with these things; after all, if it were ever discovered that he was smuggling raw materials over the border into Konoha, no doubt Iwa would send an assassin within the fortnight.

Magumi had three sons, and his wife had died giving birth to his youngest. He had been quite poor, before he had set up a trade agreement with the Hokage, and now he was well-to-do, and had a large house on the outskirts of Konoha, just waiting for his return. This trip was to be his final traverse between Grass and Fire, and he was grateful to finally be moving his children from the war-ravaged Kusa, to a safe and stable home in the hidden village.

Very little of this, of course, was included in the mission briefing, which Sakura was skimming one last time from her position wedged in the fork of a tree branch overlooking the road. It was only the necessary information; nothing more, nothing less.

_**Level 4 Security Clearance** _

_ Name: Magumi Akito_

_ Age: 39_

_ Occupation: Merchant_

_ Physical Description: Photograph Enclosed_

_ Last Known Location: Tetsumura, Kusa _

_ Deadline for Completion: 5/14_

_ Mission Level: A_

Sakura only knew the bit about Magumi smuggling over the border because she had bullied one of the Chunin down at the intelligence office into handing over a more detailed file.

She was somewhat unique, in that she generally tried to garner information about her targets before eliminating them. Most shinobi her rank had gotten to the point where they were jaded enough to realize that sometimes it was best not to know; but Sakura was young, and although she would never freely admit it, Magumi was to be only her second hit ever. The first had been an opium dealer who had been responsible for the rapes and murders of over twenty women. Sakura had had very few reservations about ending that particular life.

Banishing these thoughts, she rolled up the scroll, resealing it and tucking it into her pack. Now was not the time to be distracted; Magumi and his wagon full of smuggled goods would be appearing over the crest of the hill any minute now.

Her estimation was very accurate: it was barely five minutes before Sakura sensed chakra signals approaching from the direction of Tetsumura. As the signals drew closer, Sakura frowned: Magumi was not alone. Of course, she had been prepared for this, in the event that the man had hired guards. However, the signals were not the controlled, steady ones that would belong to shinobi, nor were they even the smaller, wilder chakras of mercenaries. In fact, as the signals drew closer, and the wagon came into view over the hill, Sakura could have sworn that the signals were weak and small enough to belong to young children.

Taking a deep breath, Sakura forced all other thoughts away. She couldn't be letting her mind wander.

As the wagon drew closer, Sakura reached into her holster and withdrew a kunai.

"Surudoi me no jutsu," She whispered, flashing through a couple of hand signs, and then blinking slightly as her vision blurred and then sharpened, zooming in on the wagon like a telescope lens.

Sitting at the head of the wagon, guiding the tired-looking horse pulling it, was Magumi Akito. There was no mistaking it; Sakura had gotten dozens of descriptions from the man's contacts and acquaintances, and she had studied several photographs of him.

She took a deep breath in, and then let it out after several seconds, feeling the air fill and then rush out of her lungs. Patience. She needed to wait for precisely the right moment to strike.

It came soon enough. As the horse passed under the tree branch, she drew back her arm in one fluid, soundless movement, and released the kunai. It streaked out of her grip, and flashed through the air in a blur of silver, to bury itself in Magumi's throat in a spray of scarlet.

The man slumped over the reins, and the horse reared in panic at the smell of blood. The wagon came unhitched, and rolled into a ditch on the side of the road.

Sakura's blood ran cold as she heard the cries of panic from within the wagon. The cries of children. Her muscles froze with indecision, as she watched the three boys scramble from the ruined wagon, one of them limping slightly. The oldest couldn't have been more than ten—not even old enough to be a genin, really.

The oldest was the first to spot their father, lying slumped against the driver's seat of the wagon. He pointed at him wordlessly, and the two other boys turned to look. The youngest wasn't a day over five, by Sakura's reckoning. Suddenly she felt very ill.

Her remorse—only worsened as the three children crowded around their father, the two youngest crying out and sobbing, and the oldest remaining silent and impassive—was quickly replaced by anger, as she remembered the mission briefing tucked into her belt at this very moment. Of course it hadn't said anything about the man being a father of three, nor of Sakura having to dispatch the poor bastard in front of his own kids.

Most Iwa ninja wouldn't have cared, she supposed. After all, to shirk one's duty was the highest form of betrayal, and it would have been a disloyalty to the village to refuse the mission, no matter who the target was.

She inwardly sighed, rubbing a gloved hand across her forehead in consternation. What was she going to do about the brats? Her conscience wouldn't simply allow her to leave them on the side of the road to be swept up by bandits or to die of exposure. Nor could she take them back to Tetsumura; three kids like them wouldn't stand a chance out on the streets.

She felt the beginnings of a headache coming on.

The approaching chakra signals were what made up her mind. If the children were to be found by anyone, their fate would be out of her hands; and she couldn't stick around the scene of the crime.

With a single leap, she landed silently on the road below, her mask now firmly fixed in place.

"Hey. Kids."

The three all whirled around to face her. The oldest looked wary, and the other two were simply sniffling and moaning loudly, their grief-stricken utterances almost making Sakura wince.

"Follow me." She ordered, her tone brooking no argument.

The youngest of the kids hesitantly took a step towards her, only to have his elder brother grab him by the sleeve.

"Teuchi, don't."

The oldest kid was looking her up and down, and his searching gaze landed on her forehead-protector. His eyes widening, he looped his arms around his two brothers, gathering them close to his sides.

"She's an Iwa shinobi." He whispered, obviously thinking that only his brothers could hear him.

Sakura inwardly heaved a sigh of relief. So the kid hadn't put two-and-two together, and determined that it had been her kunai which had ended his father's life.

"There are bandits coming from the direction of Tetsumura." She said, keeping her voice free of inflection.

More likely they were just harmless merchants or a group of travelers, but she needed the leverage.

"I'm here to protect you." She felt bile rise in her throat at the lie. She was here to do anything but; she had just ruined their lives. "Please follow me off the road, where I can explain things more clearly."

Sakura wasn't stupid. She knew there was very little she could do for these children; their father's allegiance had been with the wrong village, and as such she was committing something very close to treason by helping them.

The boy looked indecisive, his gaze shifting back and forth between her and the road ahead.

"Okay." He said at last, his eyes still fixed on her like a hawk's.

Sakura nodded.

"Then please follow me and do your best to be quiet."

As they headed into the forest, Sakura winced at the cacophony created by three young boys tromping through underbrush. The fact that the younger of the two were still moaning and sniffling and loudly asking their brother where their father was didn't help either.

Luckily, they weren't trying to avoid any shinobi, so Sakura didn't have to be unduly worried about the racket. But still; it would have been almost physically painful for any trained ninja to listen to their blunders.

When they had been walking for twenty minutes, and the younger boys had begun to complain about scratches on their legs and soreness of their feet, Sakura halted in a large, circular clearing. Throughout the whole walk, her thoughts had been moving at a million miles an hour, and she still had yet to produce a viable solution for the situation.

She turned around the face the boys, crossing her arms over her chest, and ignoring the way her heart wrenched at the little ones' tear-streaked faces.

This was her fault.

"Alright, kids. Where's your mother?"

"She's dead." The oldest said flatly, as his brothers clung to either side of his pants. His expression was defiant as he looked up at Sakura.

The girl nodded, unsurprised. She had been expecting that. But before she could speak again, the kid had cut her off.

"Who killed our dad? Was it a shinobi?"

"Yes." Sakura said softly. She couldn't admit to them that she had been the one to dispatch their father; if she did, she would lose their fragile trust, and with it any chance of offering them help. So she improvised, all the while feeling her heart sink lower with every untrue word leaving her lips. "I'm an Iwa hunter nin. That means I hunt down rogue shinobi who are a danger to my village."

This wasn't a complete lie; in actuality, Kiri and Kumo were the only hidden villages which had hunter-nin corps; all the others used ANBU for that sort of dirty work. But it wasn't like these kids had intimate knowledge of the inner workings of a hidden village.

"I was after a missing shinobi from my village, and I tracked him to Tetsumura. I had just caught up with him about a mile from here, but he managed to slip away. When I arrived on the scene, he had already killed your father."

"Why would he do that?" The boy demanded, his voice rising with a note of hysteria. "What did Dad ever do to him?"

Sakura held up a hand, ignoring the lead-like feeling in her stomach.

"Calm down, alright? I don't know; maybe your father saw him, and the rogue was afraid he would report him to Iwa. Or maybe he was just in the way; sometimes missing nin will kill someone just because they're in the way."

_And sometimes ordinary shinobi will kill someone just because they picked the wrong side, _a voice whispered in the back of her mind. She pushed it away.

"What was his name? Where can I find him?" The boy demanded, a fire kindling in his eyes as he looked up at Sakura.

"Kid, you can't go chasing after an S-class missing ninja. He would kill you just as easily as he did your dad. Besides, what would your brothers do without you?" The woman asked lowly.

The boy glanced at his brothers guiltily. They were both still clinging to his clothing, the youngest dribbling snot out of one nostril, and the middle child hiding his face in the boy's side.

"What we need to focus on is getting you to safety. Do you have anywhere you can go? Any relatives? An aunt, uncle, grandparent? Anyone who could take you in?"

The boy shook his head in response to every one of the offered options, and Sakura felt frustration mount within her, along with a touch of what felt suspiciously like hysteria. What was she going to do, adopt the three sons of the man she had just murdered in cold blood?

"Daddy has a house in Konoha." The youngest piped up, his voice almost indecipherable through a combination of mumbling and congestion.

Sakura nearly groaned. Of course, what had she been expecting? The only place for the boys to go would be Konoha, and no doubt the woman would be immediately seized the moment they crossed the border.

She wasn't particularly famous—or infamous, depending upon whose side you were on—as jounin went, nor was she in the Konoha Bingo Book. But her pink hair was distinctive, and her Iwa forehead-protector would be a dead giveaway in any case.

The war was technically over. It had been technically over for three years, but that meant very little in the shinobi world. Although all the open combat was over, the world of shadows and espionage was as ravaged by violence as ever. Konoha and Iwa, despite having worked out a peace treaty, were still constantly at each others' throats, and always vying for an advantage—as Sakura's mission at the moment was evidence of.

Running a hand over her porcelain mask, Sakura sighed expansively. She had made her choice the moment she had dropped from her safe perch in the tree branches and spoken to the three boys. Although the kunoichi liked to think of herself as hardened by the war, she knew she was still painfully soft and empathetic. She thought, in her own twisted way, that perhaps getting the boys to safety would atone for some of the sin of killing their father. And the idea of atonement was all-too appealing to the young woman, who felt her throat clench as she looked down at the three children, huddled together and utterly _alone _in the world.

"Okay. Konoha it is, then." She said at last.

* * *

**A/N **Obviously this is an AU. I may mess up the timeline slightly (in terms of character ages), but I suppose since this is an AU, I'm allowed some creative license. After all, so much is screwed up about the characters already, I'm not sure if I should even make a pretense of trying to salvage canon...


	2. Complications

Chapter Two

Complications

Sakura stared into the depths of the fire, watching the flames grasp at the air hungrily. They had been traveling for two days now, and the kunoichi had quickly realized that she had overestimated the boys. She hadn't expected to make the same pace she would have on her own; after all, the youngest, Teuchi, was only five, and none of them had ever been trained as shinobi. But she hadn't expected to move at approximately the speed of a glacier; they weren't even close to the border with Fire Country, even after two days, when ordinarily the trip from Tetsumura to the border would have taken Sakura a little under ten hours.

She sighed in frustration, and tore her gaze away from the fire to examine the boy sitting across from her. Teuchi and Taro had both gone to sleep, curled up together on Sakura's bedroll. But the oldest, Katsu, was staring contemplatively down at something in his hands.

As Sakura watched, there was a flash of metal, and the boy emitted a surprised hiss of pain. The young woman raised an eyebrow, and in one fluid motion, rose from her seat on the ground, and was at Katsu's side.

The boy had sliced his finger with a kunai, and was watching listlessly as the blood trailed down his wrist at a languorous pace.

"Hey, kid."

The boy didn't look up from his hand, choosing to instead continue studying the trail of crimson working its way down his arm.

Sakura frowned. Reaching out, she wrapped a hand around his wrist, and summoning the familiar coolness of healing chakra, observed as her hand glowed pale green and the skin around the small nick knitted together. Katsu watched in shock, his eyes wide as saucers.

"How...how did you do that?"

He was so enthralled, that he didn't even seem to care when Sakura gently extracted the kunai from his slackened grip, and tucked it into her holster.

She smiled at the tone of reverence.

"Healing chakra. Shinobi do more than just kill." _Sometimes_, added the little voice.

Katsu looked away briefly, and then down at his hand. The small wound had disappeared, but the blood still remained. He looked like he wanted to say something, but wasn't sure how. Sakura saved him the trouble.

"What were you doing with one of my kunai, hm?"

Of course, the woman had noticed Katsu 'covertly' taking it from her pack the night before. But she hadn't said anything; after all, she wasn't the kid's mother, and if he wanted to learn to defend himself, more's the better.

The boy looked vaguely embarrassed, and mumbled something in the direction of the ground.

"What was that?"

He was flushing visibly now.

"I _said_, I just wanted to...to get stronger."

Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

The boy looked startled at her question.

"So that I can find the ninja who killed my father, and kill _him_!"

The woman's heart twisted painfully. What would the young boy do, she wondered, if he knew the truth?

"Well," She said, rising to her feet and dusting off her pants. "You'd better start by learning how not to lop your own hand off when handling a kunai."

She withdrew one of the wickedly sharp blades from her holster, and gestured for Katsu to stand. The boy stared at her for a moment, before ungracefully scrambling to his feet.

"You see how I grip the hilt?"

Sakura demonstrated, adjusting her grip on the kunai so that it was firm, yet loose enough to allow for freedom of motion. The boy nodded slowly, his eyes fixated on the weapon with the single-minded intensity unique to children.

"That's how you should do it. _Never _grip it anywhere other than the hilt, okay? Otherwise you end up with those nasty little nicks. Or you can cut off an entire finger."

Katsu's throat bobbed as he swallowed with apprehension at her warning. Without preamble, the kunoichi handed him the blade.

"Now you try."

The boy was careful in his movements, each finger placed exactly and with painstaking precision. After a moment, he gave the kunai an experimental swing, before looking up at Sakura with hopeful eyes.

"Was that right, Kunoichi-san?"

The young woman smiled slightly.

"Yeah, that was better."

She was about to suggest that he move his thumb a bit to the left, when suddenly four chakra signals registered on the periphery of her senses. The kunoichi stiffened, her hand flying to her shuriken holster, and her head whipping around to face the blackness of the forest beyond.

"Katsu, go sit with Taro and Teuchi. I'll be back in a few minutes. _Stay put_." She issued this final command very sternly, and the boy quailed at her tone.

He nodded nonetheless, and scampered over to his sleeping brothers, the kunai Sakura had given him shaking in his grip.

Unhooking her mask from where it had been hanging around her belt, Sakura donned the porcelain covering, and rolled her shoulders several times with the intent of loosening them. Then, focusing, she honed in on the approaching chakra signals.

The signals were moving very fast, and they were strong and tightly controlled, leaving no doubt as to the identities of their owners—shinobi. They were also making a beeline for Sakura's campsite, having no doubt either detected her chakra, or seen the light from the fire.

Inwardly, the kunoichi berated herself. She ought to know better than this; they taught basic infiltration and survival skills at the _Academy_, for crying out loud. Sakura had been a jounin for a year, and ANBU for almost six months now—she shouldn't still be making stupid mistakes like this.

Shaking her head with self-disgust, Sakura rocked back on her heels, and feeling her leg muscles bunch, launched herself into the trees. With the two parties moving towards one another with chakra-enhanced speed, it was a matter of minutes before the young woman was face-to-face with the Iwa ANBU platoon.

All of them had dropped to the forest floor, and as the ninja cautiously approached one another, Sakura realized that she recognized the captain. Crane—who happened to have been the administer of Sakura's ANBU entrance exam—was one of the senior captains, and if his cell was out, it meant they were on an important mission with direct orders from the Tsuchikage.

The kunoichi bowed to the captain politely.

"Tsuru-san."

"Identify yourself." Came the gruff order.

"ANBU codename Rabbit, dispatched from Iwa six days ago on a covert assassination mission from the Tsuchikage. Nothing is built on stone; it is all built on sand. But we must build as if the sand were stone."

The code phrase was a quote from a book written by the first Tsuchikage, and was often used by ANBU as an identifier.

"Mission status?" Crane inquired, as his three teammates—Snake, Otter, and Horse—all lowered their katana.

"Partially complete." Sakura replied, resisting the urge to shift uneasily. Her thoughts went back to the three boys huddled around the campfire. She wasn't sure what would happen if her compatriots were to discover her actions.

Over the past few days, the young kunoichi had been trying her utmost not to think about the consequences of what she was doing. But she was sure that if any of her comrades were to discover her actions, they would be condemned as treason, and Sakura would be punished appropriately. Perhaps she would even be labeled a missing nin—for an Iwa shinobi, disloyalty was the highest form of dishonor. As far as most of the ninja of her village were concerned, if you weren't loyal to Iwa to your dying breath, you didn't deserve to be alive.

Suddenly, her glove linings were slick with sweat from her palms.

"Partially complete?"

The kunoichi almost winced. It did sound rather odd; an assassination mission was never partially complete. Either your mark was dead, or he was alive. There wasn't exactly a middle ground.

"Just some loose ends that need to be tied up." She replied steadily.

In the near-darkness, Sakura could barely see the captain's nod.

"Very well, Usagi. Just be certain to be back in Iwa by—"

The rest of Crane's sentence was cut off by the kunai which suddenly embedded itself in his gut.

* * *

Sakura's forearms were slick with blood, as she hurriedly pumped healing chakra into the injured captain. The kunai that had taken him out wasn't poisoned or serrated—for this Sakura thanked her lucky stars—but belly wounds always came along with the potent threats of blood loss and infection.

Otter had hung back to guard Sakura while she healed the captain, while Snake and Horse had engaged directly with the enemy. From several feet away, the young kunoichi dimly registered metal clashing against metal, pained yells, and the great crashes and whooshes of jutsu being released. But she didn't allow the proximity of battle to cloud her focus; within another minute, Sakura had knitted the wound shut, and coated the man's internal organs with a layer of chakra, to kill any onset infections. In the heat of battle, there wasn't much she could do to replenish his blood loss, but for now, Crane was in no immediate danger.

She rose to her feet and drew two wickedly sharp kunai, placing herself between her injured comrade and where she knew the enemy shinobi were. Her eyes flew to the shadowy leaves above, trying to catch sight of the air-borne battle taking place there. As she watched, a shinobi wearing the uniform of a Konoha ANBU came flying through the air, to land on the ground with a thud. Sakura tensed herself to attack, but before she could, Snake appeared from the trees above, a kunai glinting in his fist. In a single fluid motion, he ended the man's life. Then, the shinobi turned on his heel and sprung back into the foliage above to rejoin the unseen fight.

Taking a deep breath, Sakura glanced at Otter, who had her katana drawn, and was rotating around in a slow circle, her eyes no doubt scanning the trees for any sign of an attacker.

"Go. I'll guard Tsuru." Sakura said, jerking her chin in the direction of the forest.

The woman didn't hesitate, only nodding silently and darting off after Snake, the blade of her sword catching the light of the crescent moon as she flashed out of sight.

Sakura was left alone in the now eerily silent clearing. The battle appeared to be moving off—in the opposite direction of her camp, the woman noted with relief—and only the distant sounds of combat could be heard. But Sakura didn't allow herself to relax. In fact, the momentary lull only served to make her more alert.

The crickets had begun to chirp again, and the sound grated against her nerves.

She jumped slightly when there was a distant roar of flames, no doubt from a katon jutsu.

A bead of sweat worked its way down her face, trapped from evaporating by the thick porcelain of her ANBU mask.

So when she heard a soft murmur from below her, she nearly slitted Crane's throat before she realized it was just the injured captain beginning to wake. Sliding her kunai back into her holster, Sakura quickly crouched down, concern knitting her brow together.

"Easy, easy." She said, placing her hands on the man's shoulders when he tried to sit up. Gently she forced him to lay back down, ignoring any feeble protests.

"Kawauso? Uma? Hebi? What are their statuses?" He inquired hoarsely.

"Unknown." She replied. "They've engaged the enemy, and are moving west."

The man cursed loudly.

"Those fucking Leaf bastards." He growled. "I knew they were following us; our detour must have given them all the chance they needed to catch up to us."

Sakura frowned.

"You knew they were following you?"

The man shifted slightly, and then grunted with pain. Within a moment, Sakura's hands had rekindled with warm green light, and were pressed to his abdomen. The captain released a relieved sigh, as some of his pain was alleviated.

"Yeah. Been on our asses since yesterday when we crossed the border with Fire. But I thought we were well enough ahead of them that they wouldn't pose a threat. I was careless."

The young woman frowned. It wasn't like Crane to be sloppy; he was a combat veteran, having served on the frontlines of the war since it had started. He had also been with ANBU for nearly seven years, and you didn't stay alive that long without having a healthy sense of caution. Crane seemed to read her thoughts, because he said next, in a bitterly wry tone,

"I'm getting too old for this, it seems."

"Don't talk," Sakura mumbled. "You'll agitate the wound."

The man chuckled dryly.

"Clever way to get me to shut up, Usagi."

It was just then that Sakura heard the twig snap.

In a fraction of a second she was on her feet, dark green chakra coating her fists, and beryl eyes sharpened to hard, searching shards of ice. Silence reigned once more, but the crickets had suddenly stopped chirping. Sakura felt uneasiness creep up on her, raising the hairs on the back of her neck.

Something was off; an enemy was nearby.

She glanced down at Crane, feeling her discomposure only grow. With an injured comrade to protect, the kunoichi was doubtful of her odds, especially if she had to contend with more than one enemy at a time. After all, despite her skill in the areas of combat and assassination, the young Iwa nin was primarily a medic, and she was facing Konoha's elite.

The captain, once again, displayed his uncanny ability to discern what she was thinking.

"If it becomes necessary, protect yourself first. Don't waste chakra trying to save me."

"Sir—"

"Perhaps you misunderstood me; that was an order. Don't make me repeat myself." His tone had taken on the steely temper of a practiced commander, and Sakura almost found herself saluting and submitting to the order. But then she momentarily reflected on the prospect of leaving the captain behind, and her resolve hardened.

"Sir, I can't in good conscience—"

Sakura's rebuttal was cut off by a kunai whizzing past her head. The blade barely nicked the shell of her ear, and a moment later, the woman felt a hot trail of blood trace down her neck. The chakra coating her fists flared dangerously, as she zeroed in on the direction the kunai had come from. It hadn't been intended as a killing blow; whoever had thrown it had intended it as a challenge.

But before she could make a move, a figure flickered to view on the edge of the clearing. Sakura's eyes were well-adjusted to the dark, so she could make out the figure's Konoha ANBU uniform, and the light tracing along the sharpened edge of their drawn katana.

Sakura shifted her weight to the balls of her feet, ready to dodge any incoming attacks. At this point, she generally would have already made the first move, but with an injured companion to protect, she couldn't risk going on the offensive and leaving him vulnerable. The Konoha ninja obviously realized this as well, and instead of immediately attacking, he stalked into the clearing leisurely, looking rather like a smug predatory feline zeroing in on its prey.

Sakura banished this thought almost as soon as it occurred to her; she was nobody's _prey_.

She bared her teeth as the ANBU drew closer. Everything about his posture said 'relaxed'-the man was practically slouching, much to her irritation-but she had no doubt that he could lash out with a killing blow in mere moments, if he so chose. Unfortunately, the enemy nin couldn't see her threatening expression, due to the fact that she was wearing her mask. But he seemed to read her furious aura; after all, the young woman was practically radiating killing intent.

The sound of a distinctly masculine chuckle echoed through the clearing, and Sakura fought off the shiver which rolled up her spine at the sound. Her fists tightened slightly; she wasn't used to sitting around and doing nothing with an enemy mere feet away, and she could feel herself growing tenser by the minute.

"Do you surrender?"

Sakura was momentarily speechless at the sheer arrogance of the question. Was the enemy shinobi so sure of his odds that he would ask for a surrender before the fight had even commenced?

In answer, she sent a handful of shuriken flying towards his head. The man easily dodged the projectiles, swaying to the side like a willow tree under the influence of a breeze. Sakura noted, her ire growing, that his hands were buried in his pockets.

"Usagi, get out of here."

Sakura glanced down at Crane, who was weakly struggling to sit up.

"Don't strain yourself. You'll reopen the wound." She said tightly, moving slightly to her left so that she was standing directly between the Iwa captain and the Konoha ANBU.

"That was an order! As your superior officer, I am _ordering _you to retreat to Iwa!"

The young kunoichi almost winced. From a young age, all Iwa shinobi were trained to be militarily obedient. Insubordination was second only to treason in terms of severity, and Sakura had no doubt that, should they all get out of this alive, she would be brought up on charges. Not to mention that she technically was already committing_ treason_ as it was.

In any case, it went against the grain to refuse an order so blatantly. But it also went against the grain to desert an injured comrade. Like she had so often in the past few days, Sakura found herself torn between two aspects of her morality.

After what felt like an eternity, but in reality was less than a second, she shook her head.

"Sorry, Captain. I'll have to refuse that particular order."

And that was when the Konoha shinobi attacked.

* * *

Sakura crouched in the crook of the branch, sweat tracing down her exposed arms, and her breath coming in short pants.

Damn it all; this Konoha ANBU was unreal. His speed, stamina, and the chakra-taxing techniques he was executing were all just short of unbelievable, and from his posture and occasional taunting remarks, the woman was fairly sure he was barely breaking a sweat.

As she launched herself out of the tree—in the wake of a nasty katon which had been launched towards her position with eerie precision—the kunoichi gathered as much chakra as she could muster into the heel of her foot, and slammed it into the ground.

There was a deafening crash as the forest floor practically exploded on impact, dirt and twigs tossed up and enormous fissures tearing through the earth.

Sakura used the small interlude lent by the cloud of dust blanketing the area to make her way back to Crane, who she had left propped up against the trunk of an oak tree. The captain's hand flew to his shuriken holster at the sound of her approach, but his body language relaxed when she emerged from the dust.

Not bothering to waste time on pleasantries, the young woman grabbed the injured captain by both arms, and hoisted him up onto her back. After a moment of fumbling, the man managed to gather his faculties well enough to get a good grip around her shoulders. With that, Sakura sprung off into the trees, heading east at her maximum speed.

She could feel the Konoha ANBU's chakra signal, closing in as he fought his way through the ninja wire and exploding tags she was leaving in her wake. Despite her attempts to divert him, he was rapidly closing the gap between them, and the kunoichi knew she had mere minutes; there was no hope of getting Crane to safety. Just as she felt despair tightening its icy grip around her heart, the enemy signal stopped dead. Sakura almost stumbled, shocked by its sudden static nature. But after a moment she redoubled her speed, intent on taking any advantage she could. Just as the ANBU's chakra signal was almost out of her sensing range, she felt it begin to move off, in the opposite direction of Sakura's trajectory.

The woman couldn't believe their luck; that the Konoha nin would suddenly cease his pursuit at the precise moment he had been about to catch up to them seemed improbable at best. He must have received an order from his captain to regroup.

Sakura slowed her pace slightly, as she realized that she and Crane were drawing close to her where she had left Taro, Teuchi, and Katsu. It would be best to bring the captain back to the camp so that she could finish the healing process and ensure that the kids were safe. But doing that would raise questions on Crane's end, and no doubt Sakura's fragile plan to get the boys to safety would come crashing around her ears in moments.

"The Konoha ANBU have ceased pursuit." She said after a second of contemplative silence. She didn't doubt that he had already realized this—Crane was unofficially known within the Iwa shinobi corps as an expert sensor—but it gave her something to do besides grasp fruitlessly for a solution to the problems she herself had created.

"Is your camp nearby?"

It wasn't the captain's question, but the ragged, exhausted tenor of his voice that made up Sakura's mind. She had refused to abandon him back in the clearing, and she wasn't about to leave the injured man for dead in the middle of the woods, just to avoid some uncomfortable questions.

"Yeah. I'll take you there now and see what I can do about the blood loss you've suffered." She said quietly.

They were only about a mile out from the camp, and so it was less than five minutes before the soft glow of the kunoichi's campfire came into view. As they entered the clearing and Sakura helped Crane slide off her back, she darted her gaze around the clearing in search of the three boys. After a moment, her emerald orbs widened, and she felt her stomach turn to lead.

They were gone.

* * *

**A/N: Whew! I don't know why that chapter was so hard to finish, but it just was! The plot sort of got away from me, I'm afraid, and I just went with it...Anyway, can anybody guess who the ANBU Sakura was fighting was? It should be obvious, as I've never been one for subtlety...**

**In any case, I hope you enjoyed this second installment of "Tree of Knowledge", and that you will leave me some feedback, positive or otherwise. Anyway, the metaphorical ball should get rolling in the next few chapters, during which Sakura will be captured, meet Kakashi, etc. We'll also be delving more deeply into AU Sakura's backstory and learning a bit more about her and her life in Iwa.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. Surrender

Chapter Three

Surrender

Sakura fought hard to conceal her sudden concern, as she helped Crane limp over to the fire, and after a moment of positioning, sit down on her bedroll.

Where could the three boys have gone? Perhaps they had been spooked by the nearby sounds of battle, and had fled into the woods. Or maybe the Leaf ninja had come upon them, and Teuchi, Taro, and Katsu had been captured or killed. Sakura swallowed past the lump in her throat; she should be grateful. After all, with the boys' disappearance, the responsibility of getting them to safety had been taken out of her hands, and any possible charges of treason had been eliminated.

But still, she felt her better nature darting around in the back of her mind, frantically waving its arms above its head and begging to be heard. She had _chosen _to be saddled with the responsibility the boys presented; she had _chosen_ to risk being labeled a traitor. And that responsibility—along with the risks inherent to it—was still hers.

She was shaken out of her thoughts by Crane.

"You directly disobeyed my orders, Usagi."

She winced, even as she crouched down beside the injured captain, and reached into the medical pouch at her belt.

"I'm aware of the consequences of my actions, Sir." She said quietly, fighting to keep her voice free of expression.

As she spoke, she withdrew a packet of Soldier Pills, and popped one of them from its thin aluminum enclosure. She offered the pill to Crane, and he took it willingly, grunting slightly at the feeling of sudden adrenaline flooding his limbs.

There were a few more minutes of silence, as Sakura concentrated on more thoroughly healing his torso injury. She was just flushing his body with a Diagnostic Jutsu, when the captain finally spoke.

"Listen, you saved my life back there—I won't be bringing this up with the commander when we get back to Iwa. But know that if you ever disobey me like that again, I won't be so lenient."

Sakura froze, her hand halfway between his abdomen and her medical pouch. After a moment she cleared her suddenly dry throat, and ducked her head.

"Thanks, Captain."

The man waved a gloved hand at her, and she couldn't tell if he was irritated or embarrassed by her gratitude.

"Don't thank me. Use the com in my pouch to get in contact with Uma; his last check-in puts him approximately a mile from our current position."

Just like that, the captain was all business once again.

"Yes, Sir. While I do that you should stretch out your abdominal area, to make sure all the muscles have re-attached themselves correctly. Let me know if you experience any discomfort."

The man nodded, handing her a walkie-talkie he had unhooked from his belt, and then proceeding to do as she had suggested.

Pressing the 'talk' button, Sakura drew the transceiver close and said,

"This is Usagi, requesting check-in from all units."

She released the button, and waited for a few moments of static, before the radio crackled to life with a response.

"This is Uma, checking in."

"Roger that."

Within a few beats, Snake had checked in, and Sakura found herself waiting for a response from Otter. When it didn't come, she felt her concern—already kindled by the disappearance of the three boys—redouble.

She glanced over at Crane, who was leaning over to the left, occasionally emitting grunts of pain as his newly-healed muscles flexed.

"Tsuru-san, Kawauso isn't checking in."

The man paused in his stretches, and the concern was evident in his tone when he next spoke.

"Can you sense her chakra signature anywhere nearby?"

Sakura extended her senses as far as they would go, but she could sense nothing but the weak, pale signatures of a few forest animals. She noted that there weren't three small, bright signatures anywhere within her periphery either. The boys really _were_ gone.

"No, Sir."

There was a long pause.

"Neither can I. Uma is approaching from the west, and Hebi is with him. But I can't pick up on Kawauso."

"Do you want me to comb the area?"

Although Sakura wasn't a sensor type, exemplary chakra sensitivity and control were the hallmarks of a medic, and as a result she had a better feel for signals than most shinobi.

Crane seemed to inwardly deliberate for a moment, before he shook his head.

"No, wait until Hebi and Uma get here. We'll regroup; as of now, we're unsure of the situation with the enemy ANBU."

"Yes, Sir."

Sakura paced back on forth on the other side of the fire, as Crane wearily got to his feet, and began to do more dynamic stretches. Within five minutes, Sakura registered the semi-familiar signatures of Snake and Horse approaching, and the two Iwa nin had appeared on the edge of the clearing.

They appeared uninjured, although as they approached, Sakura noted several smears of blood on Snake's breastplate, and the fact that Horse was slightly favoring his left ankle.

"There was a whole platoon of them; one of them is dead, and a second is injured. Status of the other two is unknown, but we assume that they've regrouped, most likely to the east of our current position. Should we attempt pursuit?" Horse said.

Crane shook his head, finally ceasing in his stretches.

"Kawauso is MIA. Our first priority is determining her location. Are either of you injured?"

Snake shook his head, but Horse gestured to his ankle.

"Sprained it, I think." He admitted.

"Alright, Usagi can take care of that later. You two," This was directed at Sakura and Snake. "Sweep the area for any sign of Kawauso. If you can't find her in ten, check in with me and we'll go from there."

"Got it, Captain."

He turned to Sakura, and gestured to the trees on the west side of the clearing.

"I can start with the northwest; you can take the northeast."

She nodded her assent, and within a few moments they had both darted off in their respective directions, and Sakura was flying through the treetops, her senses on high alert for any sign of the other Iwa kunoichi.

As soon as her companions' chakra signatures had faded from her senses, the young woman slowed her pace slightly. She wasn't sure what to do about the boys' disappearance. If she had been alone, she most certainly would have searched for Magumi's sons. But she had the vigilant eyes of her fellow Iwa ANBU nearby, not to mention the duty she owed to Otter—the woman was counting on her companions to find her.

Sakura was torn, unsure what to do, when a glint of light to her left caught her eye. She immediately whipped her head around, and was confronted with a horrifying sight.

The young woman was an elite shinobi; she had been a loyal soldier for neigh on ten years, and had seen her fare share of bloodshed and gore on the battlefield. But she was still not entirely prepared for the sight of her comrade's body, lying mangled and bloody almost beyond recognition, hanging from the upper branches of an elm. Otter's form was peppered with dozens of senbon, and a kunai was embedded in each of her sleeves, holding her to the tree trunk in a twisted sort of crucifixion.

As Sakura—in a burst of chakra so intense she could feel burns appearing on the soles of her feet—sprang up into the branches beside the critically-wounded kunoichi, she felt the woman's chakra signal flicker piteously. It was no wonder that her companions had been unable to locate her; the signature was so weak it was barely detectable, even mere feet away.

"Kawauso, can you hear me?" There was no response from the woman, but Sakura thought that she witnessed a slight tremor wrack the other kunoichi's form.

Positioning herself on the branch just below Otter, the younger woman coated her hands in medical chakra, and carefully reached out to extract the kunai. As the wickedly sharp weapons came free from Otter's flesh, Sakura pumped a small burst of chakra into the kunoichi's wrists on either side, to minimize any further blood loss. Without the kunai to hold her aloft, Otter would have fallen to the ground below; but Sakura had positioned herself so that she could catch the unconscious kunoichi, and within a few moments more, they were both on the ground, Sakura carefully laying her companion down on the forest floor.

As she knelt beside the ANBU, she worried her lower lip between her teeth. The woman's injuries were extremely extensive; perhaps the worst Sakura had ever faced outside of the sterile environment of a hospital, and without the attending medical nin and nurses, she wasn't sure whether or not she would be able to save Otter.

Taking a deep breath, she summoned the familiar glow of healing chakra, and immersed herself in the seemingly impossible task.

* * *

Forty minutes and nearly all of Sakura's remaining chakra reserves later, Otter jolted awake. The woman tried to sit up, her hands fumbling for a holster that wasn't there. Clumsily, the pink-haired kunoichi steadied her injured comrade, and helped her to lay back down on the mossy ground. Sakura could feel the symptoms of chakra exhaustion beginning to creep up on her, but now was certainly not the time to rest.

"How are you feeling?" She inquired, starting at the sound of her own voice; it was scratchy and rough, like two sheets of sandpaper being rubbed together.

"Like I've just been trampled by a herd of water buffalo." Otter murmured, her own voice cracking with every word.

"Good. That means you're still alive."

Sakura swayed slightly, before abruptly collapsing backwards onto her ass.

"Shit." The older kunoichi said, propping herself up onto her elbows with a groan of effort. "Now you're the one who needs a healer."

The young woman shook her head in an attempt to clear some of the fogginess clouding it.

"What happened? You were in pretty bad shape when I found you."

As she spoke, she reached into her pouch and withdrew her last soldier pill. She bit off half the tablet, wincing at the bitter taste, before handing the remaining half to Otter. The woman swallowed it with a wince, before slowly sitting up.

"I was fighting the Leaf kunoichi; she's damn good. Genjutsu expert, but that's not to say she doesn't know her way around a senbon. As I'm sure you've deduced." Otter jerked her chin in the direction of the heaping pile of metal next to her right elbow; Sakura had individually extracted each and every one of the needles, adding a burst of medical chakra each time to counter the damage caused by the removal.

"No shit. We'd better get back to the others. Are you strong enough to walk?"

Otter shifted slightly, and then shook her head, long black ponytail swaying back and forth.

"No. I would collapse within a few steps."

Sakura swore under her breath, and swept her gaze around the clearing as though hoping a solution to their predicament would magically appear. At least the older kunoichi was honest; she wasn't like these idiotic green ANBU and jounin, who liked to bluster about brushing off traumatic head injuries. For this, at least, Sakura was grateful.

"Try to radio in; see if Tsuru can send somebody to find us. Those Leaf ANBU could still be out there."

Otter raised a gloved hand to her left ear, and fiddled with her com for several moments.

"I can't pick up on anything. That Leaf bitch must have jammed the signal."

Her pink-haired comrade took a deep breath in through her nose, attempting to prevent a stream of expletives from slipping between her lips.

"Okay. In that case, we'll just have to stay on the defensive, and hunker down until Hebi finds us."

She allowed herself to fall into a more comfortable sitting position, using her last remaining scraps of energy to haul herself over to Otter's side. The older kunoichi had removed her mask and was drinking greedily from a canteen, and after a moment she passed the bottle to Sakura.

As the young woman drank in small sips from the canteen—having shoved aside her own ANBU mask—she covertly studied Otter's profile. The woman was very beautiful, in a harsh, sharp sort of way; her nose was small and slightly pointed at the tip, and her chin was tiny and catlike. Her flinty black eyes were exotically slanted, and a thin white scar stretched from her temple to the bottom of her left jaw.

After a moment she glanced at Sakura, and a wry smile twisted her mouth upwards.

"Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes, Usagi-chan. I knew you were young...but damn, you can't be a day over sixteen."

"I'll be eighteen next month." She countered, handing the canteen back to Otter.

"Ah."

They fell into slightly uneasy silence, and Sakura observed how Otter's hands were twitching restlessly, as though she longed to grip a weapon. After a moment, the younger woman realized that the older kunoichi had lost her kunai and shuriken pouches during her fight with the Konoha ANBU.

Reaching into her own arsenals, she drew out three kunai and two shuriken, and offered them to her companion. The woman took them gratefully, tucking the shuriken and one of the kunai into her belt. Loathe as she was to part with her weapons, Sakura wouldn't have been able to feel easy about leaving her comrade weak and unarmed.

"This was going to be Tsuru's last mission, you know."

Sakura was startled that Otter had broken the silence, and after her words sunk in momentarily, was surprised even further.

"Why? He's one of the best the corps has ever had."

Otter shrugged, her gaze trained on the shadowy wall of foliage in front of them.

"He and his girlfriend just got engaged. And he's been ANBU for a long time—seen a lot of ugly out in the field. With the war winding down...I guess he's just ready for peace."

Sakura swallowed, fiddling slightly with her shuriken holster. She had only been an ANBU for six months, and already the idea of 'peace' sounding appealing. She already felt guilt for her deeds weighing down her soul, tainting black what had already been grayed by war; she wasn't even eighteen years old, and she had already orphaned three children. In the line of duty, she had no doubt she would orphan countless more. She wasn't sure how Crane had stuck it out for so long. When she voiced her thoughts—censored so as not to expose her well-kept secret—Otter snorted slightly.

"Yeah. Most people don't last in ANBU for as long as he has—I know I sure as hell won't. But...you do what you've gotta do. For your family, friends, village, money, power; whatever it is that motivates you to fight."

Sakura settled to brooding, as the conversation petered out once more. What Otter had said was the case for many shinobi; in order to risk their lives on the daily, soldiers had to have some kind of drive. Whether that drive was to protect their loved ones, or to attain power and riches, all shinobi had something they fought for.

Sakura didn't have any family, and after a moment of thought, determined that she wasn't well-equipped in the 'friends' department either. She had many acquaintances, and a handful of shinobi with which she shared the bonds of combat. But the only real friends she had ever had were dead, and that was not likely to change any time soon. Nor did she feel any particular patriotism towards Iwa. Of course, all Iwa ninja were trained from a young age to be loyal and self-sacrificing for the sake of their village; but Sakura had been born in Grass Country, and without the personal bonds which created the strongest form of allegiance, she wasn't exactly the most stalwart of her compatriots. But she wasn't a traitor either.

She _wasn't_. Not really.

The kunoichi was snapped out of her gloomy thoughts by the approach of two chakra signatures. Her sensing abilities weren't sophisticated enough for her to be able to identify the shinobi possessing them, but since there were two signatures, and Sakura was well aware that only one of her companions was uninjured and able to run, she inferred that they belonged to the Konoha ANBU. And they were making a beeline for the kunoichi's position.

Sakura judged by Otter's sudden stiffening that she too had noticed the approaching signatures, and had come to the same conclusion as the younger woman. With every ounce of strength left in her exhausted body, the pink-haired kunoichi managed to stumble to her feet, her fingers fumbling with the Velcro holding her kunai holster shut. After a moment she had a blade in each hand, although the kunais' usually unnoticeable weight seemed to have increased exponentially, and the weapons felt unwieldy and awkward in her grip.

Otter was shifting around restlessly, obviously trying to muster the strength to stand beside Sakura. Before the girl could protest that she would most likely just agitate her wounds, Otter had lurched to her feet, one of Sakura's borrowed shuriken in one hand.

"Cover my back." She ordered, and the younger woman automatically moved to cover her companion's blind spots. Otter's authoritative tone had jolted her out of her exhausted stupor, and she was now moving with slightly more vigor.

"We won't stand a chance." Sakura hissed, as she felt the signatures draw ever closer. One was smaller than the other, and flickered occasionally, as though its owner was injured. For this, Sakura was immensely grateful, but she could also feel the second chakra signature burning brightly against the surrounding darkness, not weakened in the slightest.

"I know that." Otter responded, her voice now slightly muffled; she had pulled her mask back on.

With a start, Sakura realized that her own face was bare, and inwardly cursed her stupidity. Her fingers, made clumsy and slow with chakra exhaustion, fumbled momentarily with the mask hanging from her belt, and she just managed to slide the porcelain covering into place in time for the arrival of the Konoha nin.

"But we sure as hell aren't going down without a fight." She proclaimed this loud enough for the two ANBU to hear, both of whom had appeared at the edge of the clearing.

They could have used their many tactical advantages to take Sakura and Otter out from a distance; that they had chosen to show themselves to the two Iwa kunoichi spoke of an arrogance that started the young woman's blood boiling.

"Tch. Looks like your plan worked perfectly, Captain." The shorter of the two shinobi said, her tone bordering on smug.

Sakura would have shared a concerned glance with Otter, but both Iwa ANBU were too well-trained to allow themselves to be distracted. As it was, the young woman could feel the gears in her head turning rapidly, trying to puzzle out the Konoha kunoichi's statement. What 'plan' could she be referring to? She was sure Otter was just as perplexed as she.

The captain—Sakura quickly recognized him as the ANBU she had been fighting back in the clearing with Crane—tilted his head slightly to the side. His arms were crossed across his chest, his posture was relaxed, and he looked the picture of complete lackadaisical disinterest—despite the fact that his face was covered.

"So it seems." He said.

Sakura tightened her grip on the kunai in her left hand. Were the two Konoha nin just going to stand there chatting all night?

"It would be in your best interest to surrender." The captain said, although his tone was so flat and disinterested that it was hard to believe he really cared one way or another. The female ANBU took a step forward, her posture unmistakably aggressive.

Sakura _glared_. If she hadn't been wearing her ANBU mask—as was standard protocol—the Konoha kunoichi would have been faced with the full force of Sakura's emerald death glare. As it was, the young woman allowed the tiniest amount of killing intent to leak out in the enemy nin's direction.

"Usagi-chan..." Otter's tone was warning.

Taking a deep breath, Sakura withdrew the physical manifestation of her fury, watching the Konoha kunoichi relax slightly as the murderous intent faded from the air. The crickets, having fallen silent at the tightening of the atmosphere, began to chirp once again.

"Pinkie doesn't seem to agree." The enemy kunoichi said absently to her captain, her fingers twitching slightly as though longing to form handsigns.

Moments later, Sakura felt Otter's index finger tapping against the side of her left thigh in the form of standard ANBU transmission code:

_Kunoichi is genjutsu expert. Uchiha. Beware of eyes. _

Sakura felt the corners of her mouth tighten slightly. Facing an Uchiha_ plus_ the incredibly skilled captain would not have been appealing even if she and her companion had both been uninjured and running hot on chakra. In their present, weakened state, the situation was totally devoid of any hope. But surrender was not an option; Iwa ninja did not surrender.

Shifting into a defensive stance, Sakura trained her attention fully on the two enemies once more.

"We will not surrender." Came Otter's flat proclamation.

"Pah. You Iwa ninja are all the same: stubborn and dumb." The kunoichi said derisively.

"Neko."

The cat-masked ANBU quailed slightly. It had only been a single word—her codename—but the irritated tone with which he had spoken was enough to have her trembling in her boots. You did _not _want to irritate the captain.

Grasping the porcelain of the mask near her eyes, Neko tugged, and a panel neatly slid away, exposing her eyes and the skin around them to the night air. The panel in her mask was an addition made to those of all Uchiha ANBU; after all, the modification had been designed specifically with them in mind. Feeling the familiar rush of chakra around her optic nerves, the kunoichi activated her sharingan.

Sakura felt her pulse speed up and her breathing become shallow, as the Konoha kunoichi's sharingan flared to life.

"Look down!" Otter hissed, training her own gaze towards the forest floor.

Sakura obeyed, moving closer to her companion and bringing her two crossed kunai up in front of her chest in a defensive stance.

"Oh, come on, you really think _that's _going to stop me?" Neko demanded scathingly.

A moment later, Sakura felt a whoosh of air brush across her front, and looked up just in time to meet the whirling gaze of a single sharingan eye. As the young kunoichi lost consciousness, her vision darkening and her knees weakening, she realized in shock that it was not the Konoha kunoichi who was standing in front of her, but the captain.

_Two Uchiha on one team? _She felt herself distantly muse, as the cool arms of unconsciousness closed around her. _Aren't they overdoing things a bit?_

* * *

**A/N: Why, oh why, was this chapter so hard to finish? -_- **

**As a side note, I'm looking for a beta. If anyone is interested, feel free to PM me. **


	4. Sacrifice

Chapter Four

Sacrifice

_The sun was nearly directly overhead, signaling the approach of noon. Sakura sighed loudly, shuffling her chair a bit further into the shade cast by Iwa's imposing South Wall. It got hot right around the middle of the day, and stuck with gate duty as she was, the young kunoichi was beginning to feel discomforted by the heat. Just as she was reaching for the canteen at her belt, her sharp ears discerned a familiar high-pitched whistling noise, and without a second thought, Sakura dived out of her chair, hitting the ground and rolling as a kunai thunked into the stone palisade behind where her head had been moments previously. _

_ She was back on her feet in mere moments, a shuriken in her right hand, and her left reaching for the whistle slung haphazardly around her neck. Before she could blow the whistle, alerting the other guards on duty of an attack, her 'assailant' shimmered into view several meters in front of her. _

_ The Iwa kunoichi dropped her hand from the whistle, scowling fiercely at the grinning chunin who had made it his business to nearly separate her head from her shoulders. _

_ "Masaru, aren't you supposed to be in Kiri?" She inquired waspishly, propping her hands on her hips and fixing her teammate with a look that could have stripped paint._

_ The boy's grin widened, and he parted his lips as though to respond, when suddenly he found himself with a mouth full of mud and twigs. Choking loudly, Masaru doubled over, retching, even as a taller chunin slid to a halt beside him, an irritated expression gracing his handsome features._

_ "Idiot! I told you not to pull ahead!" Kenta snapped. _

_ Masaru choked in outrage, his face turning bright red as he struggled to spit out all of the wet dirt which had been crammed into his mouth by Kenta's earth-release. _

_ "I see you two morons haven't changed a bit." Sakura proclaimed, torn between being amused and annoyed. _

_ Kenta smiled, his brilliant blue eyes—which had been the source of many a kunoichi's wistful sigh over the years—lighting up at the sight of their female teammate. _

_ "Sakura!" He dodged Masaru's rather wild swipe—the chunin had by now somewhat recovered from having his entire mouth filled with dirt—and moved to engulf Sakura in a bone-crushing hug. After a second, she abandoned the thought of knocking some sense into her two bickering teammates (literally) and settled for returning the embrace. _

_ A moment later, the young kunoichi felt Masaru (never one to be left out of anything) collide with her back, effectively turning their reunited team into a Sakura Sandwich. For a moment, the Iwa kunoichi allowed herself to revel in the wonderful sensation of being reunified with her teammates and best friends. However, after a few more seconds of having the air crushed from her lungs, she managed to choke out,_

_ "You know, I'm supposed to be on gate duty—!" _

_ "Oh, yeah, that's right!" Kenta pulled back, in the process grabbing Masaru by the collar and hauling him off of Sakura amid his protests._

_ "But we haven't seen Sakura-chan in _two months_." The boy whined. _

_ "We have to report to the Tsuchikage Tower." His teammate reminded him reproachfully. _

_ Masaru sighed mournfully, and leaning in towards Sakura, whispered 'quietly',_

_ "Sakura-chan, you don't know how awful it's been, being stuck with this guy for two whole months. He's always all 'we have to follow protocol' and 'you're going to ignite an international incident!'." _

_ Kenta rolled his eyes testily, even as Sakura surrendered her efforts to keep from laughing. _

_ "It's a miracle you _didn't _start a war with Kiri, dumbass." _

_ Inwardly, Sakura agreed with her handsome teammate's sentiments; Masaru had never been one for tact, and the young kunoichi had been very skeptical indeed when he had informed her two __months ago that he was being sent on a diplomacy mission, of all things. It made sense, of course, for Kenta to be picked for that type of mission; he was the Tsuchikage's nephew, after all, and as such was a prime candidate for diplomacy envoys. _

_ "Anyway, you really should head up to the tower." She informed her irrepressible teammate, smiling slightly at his irritable expression. _

_ "Paper shuffling..." She thought she heard him mutter, as he sulked off in the direction of the gate. _

_ "Wait a second. I have to check your papers." She said, grabbing ahold of Masaru's collar to halt his forward progress._

_ "But Sakura-chan! We're your teammates!" The boy wheedled. _

_ "No, Sakura's right. She could get in a lot of trouble for not following village-admittance protocol." Kenta cut in, and Sakura nodded in agreement. _

_ At best, she would most likely be suspended for a couple of weeks for the indiscretion. At worst, she could be stripped of her forehead-protector. After all, Iwa wasn't exactly what you would call 'trusting', and not following standard procedure when it came to people entering and exiting the village was a cardinal offense. _

_ Kenta—ignoring any more of Masaru's whining protest—withdrew the correct sheaf of papers from a pouch at his belt, and handed them to Sakura for inspection. The kunoichi quickly shuffled through the papers, not really searching for any sort of forgery, but making sure she looked suitably professional. _

_ Masaru was leaning against the wall, muttering irritably to himself and not really paying much attention to the proceedings. He just wanted to get home and fill his empty belly as soon as possible. _

_ "Everything seems to be in order," She said after a moment, doing her best to adopt the no-nonsense, straitlaced mannerisms of most of their compatriots._

_ Kenta's lips twitched at her obvious mockery, and he bowed low to her._

_ "Thank you. We will now proceed into the village." _

_ She nodded stiffly, but after a moment allowed a decidedly unprofessional smile to break through._

_ "I'm glad you're back." She said quietly, handing back the papers. He grinned in response._

_ "Yeah. Me too." _

_ As her two teammates entered the village—Kenta hauling Masaru by his ear amid the boy's loud protests—Sakura felt her spirits lighten considerably. After a moment, when she was preparing to return to her seat in front of the gate, she heard Masaru's far-flung yell._

_ "Ah! Sakura-chan! My mom is making us a welcome-home dinner tonight. You'd better stop by, or—!" _

_ "Shut up, you moron! Do you want to be fined for disturbing the peace?" Sakura could distantly hear Kenta scolding. _

_ An exasperated smile graced her lips as she resumed her post, and it remained in place even after her teammates were long gone down the road. _

* * *

The first sensation Sakura was aware of was a pounding ache in her temples. It seemed like the worst idea she had ever had to open her eyes, but at the same time the kunoichi's instincts were telling her that it was the only reasonable course of action.

The next sensation which flooded her was the familiar pain in her chest which made itself known whenever she thought of her teammates. It had been a long time since she had dreamed of Masaru and Kenta.

After a moment of taking deep breathes in an attempt to alleviate the tightness in her chest, memories of the previous night began to wash over the young woman, and her eyes flew open. She immediately shut them, upon being faced with the full assault of the mid-afternoon sun.

Her hand twitched slightly, as the impulse to reach into her kunai holster wracked it. However, her movement was hindered by the minor fact that she was bound from collarbone all the way to mid-thigh with tight, sturdy rope, her back pressed up against what felt like a tree trunk. It was her first instinct to thrash around in an attempt to wriggle free, but she quickly quashed the impulse; that would do her no good.

Now that her eyes had slightly adjusted, she inched them open, and winced slightly as the brightly-lit forest clearing came into view. She tilted her head backwards, and took note of the fact that she was, in fact, roped securely to a sturdy oak tree. The next thing she registered was that she appeared to be alone in the clearing, and that her ANBU mask had been left on. Her face felt grimy and flaky from being trapped within the porcelain enclosure for so long.

Running a quick mental diagnostic of her condition, Sakura grimaced. Her chakra was still sorely depleted—the tank, so to speak, was only a bit more than a quarter full—and her head hurt like a bitch. No doubt an aftereffect of exposure to the sharingan. Having swept her senses as far as they would go, she didn't pick up on any chakra signals, although that hardly meant anything. If an ANBU were trying to hide, it was unlikely they would be found, even by another ANBU.

As far as she could tell, the Konoha nin hadn't placed any chakra inhibitors on her, which was their mistake, Sakura thought vindictively, even as she began the familiar task of reinforcing her muscles. Within five minutes, using her chakra-enhanced strength, she had managed to snap the ropes holding her left arm pressed up against her side, and with the help of her newly liberated hand, free herself.

Sliding her hands into her weapons holsters, Sakura frowned heavily. They were both over half full. Not only had the Konoha ANBU failed to block her chakra, they had also left her fully armed. Something wasn't right. Either they were incredibly careless—unlikely, Sakura thought, recalling the squad captain—or this was a trap of some kind.

"Oh good, you're awake. I wasn't looking forward to hauling your unconscious ass all the way back to Konoha."

Sakura whipped around, sending a kunai flying dead-on towards the ANBU who had soundlessly approached. The man jumped to the side, holding his hands up in seeming surrender.

"Hey, hey, let's not be so hasty."

The pink-haired kunoichi's eyes narrowed, as she gathered chakra into her fist in preparation for what Masaru had once referred to as 'the Right Hook of Doom' in their genin days.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Sakura didn't turn to face the captain—she knew it was the captain, for his clear, low tenor was distinctive—although she felt the hair on the back of her neck rise slightly. In a heartbeat, she was across the clearing, and dodging the other Konoha nin's swipe, ducked under his guard. Managing to wrestle him into a headlock, within moments her kunai was pressed up against his pulsing jugular. The man froze in her grip, and the young woman grinned with spiteful satisfaction.

"Where is Kawauso?"

The captain remained silent, and Sakura observed with growing ire that his posture was relaxed as ever.

"Tell me or I'll slit his throat." She warned.

"No you won't."

The kunoichi was so shocked by this declaration, that she nearly released her captive. Nearly.

"Do you want to test that theory?" She growled after a moment of appalled silence.

Perhaps Sakura had a soft streak; perhaps her nature as a healer sometimes eclipsed her nature as a killer; and perhaps she wouldn't have really killed the Konoha ninja. But she was never given the opportunity to find out, because in the blink of an eye, the captain had flashed across the clearing into the space behind Sakura.

Releasing the ANBU with a violent push, Sakura swiveled on her heel and aimed a devastating roundhouse at the captain's left knee. As she had predicted, he dodged the blow, and she used his momentary distraction to deliver a ringing blow to his left ear. A spiderweb of cracks appeared in the porcelain of his mask, but the kunoichi didn't have long to revel in smug victory; she was still dangerously low on chakra, not to mention physically exhausted, and it was two against one. Within moments, the Konoha ANBU had wrestled her into submission, and at his captain's order, the shinobi used a skein of thin, flexible rope to bind her hands tightly behind her back.

"Leaf bastards." Sakura spat, her voice dripping pure venom. "If you think you'll get anything from either of us, you've never met an Iwa shinobi."

The captain's low chuckle, despite the woman's best attempts otherwise, sent a shiver rolling straight down Sakura's spine.

"Don't worry, Usagi-chan. Kawauso is safe and sound."

The young woman's temper flared dangerously. It was obviously a lie; what on earth could be their motivation for keeping Otter alive? For that matter, what was their motivation for keeping _her _alive? By all rights, Sakura should never have woken up. The only plausible explanation was that they wanted to keep them for questioning, but even that theory had its holes: Iwa ninja were famous (or infamous, depending upon whose side you were on) for their fierce loyalty and closed-mouth nature. Surely the Konoha shinobi would realize that trying to extract any information would be futile.

"You're lying." She spat, even as the captain's subordinate grabbed her by the nape of her neck and hauled her to her feet.

She jerked away from his touch, and he released her with an irritable-sounding 'tch'. The captain shrugged, not seeming too concerned with her view on his integrity.

"Ah, well, you're entitled to your opinion."

A moment later, he disappeared in a swirl of leaves, just in time to avoid a chakra-enhanced kick aimed his way.

* * *

They reached the Konoha border post by nightfall. Upon the captain's disappearance, the ANBU had informed her that either he would be carrying her—she had informed him just how she felt about _that _idea_—_or he would unbind her ankles and allow her to run alongside him. If she attempted escape, he warned, things would not go well for her.

Alone, injured, and low on chakra, Sakura didn't really have much of a choice; not to mention that she had no idea where the other Konoha nin were, or how many of them there might be skulking nearby. No, it would have been in her best interest not to attempt escape. Which was not to say she didn't try. Three times throughout their journey south, the kunoichi had tried to bolt, and three times she had been literally beaten into submission.

By the time the pair reached the border checkpoint, the sun was setting, and both Sakura and the Konoha ANBU were sporting bruises, nicks, scrapes, and frayed tempers. Upon their approach, they were accosted by a nondescript chunin, who after checking that the ANBU had the correct papers, offered to escort Sakura to the holding cells.

The woman grinned fiercely behind the protective concealment of her mask. Once again, she was chakra exhausted, but she had no doubt in her ability to subdue a mere chunin using taijutsu alone.

"You'd just love that, wouldn't you?" Muttered the ANBU, tightening his grip on her upper arm ever so slightly. "I'll escort the prisoner myself." He said to the chunin, who merely shrugged.

Sakura allowed herself to be dragged through the back door of the border checkpoint—which was really just a medium-sized shack situated on the southern side of a river dividing Fire Country and Grass Country.

From there, the ANBU hauled her through a series of short hallways—Sakura caught a glimpse of what was obviously an off-duty room, where several chunin were lounging playing cards and chatting—and down a set of stairs.

Apparently the layout of Konoha and Iwa border posts was almost identical, she noted, as she was 'escorted' through a short corridor lined with holding cells, to one of the enclosures near the end. She realized, with a fair bit of distaste, that most of the cells were inhabited, and several jeers and crude remarks (mostly involving her hair color) were tossed at her from their various inhabitants.

Most of the cell's patrons were likely smugglers, petty thieves, and drug dealers who had been caught by border patrol and were awaiting transport to a city for trial. Here and there, in the dim light of the underground area, she also caught sight of a slashed-out forehead protector, indicating missing nin.

There was a second ANBU leaning against the wall next to the empty cell, and he straightened at their approach.

"Shut the fuck up!" He roared at the stirred-up prisoners.

After a moment of irritable muttering, most of the smart captives fell into a spiteful silence. The second ANBU drew a ring of keys from his belt, and unlocked the door to the empty holding cell. Sakura was forcibly pushed into the enclosure, and a moment later, heard the rusty creak and crash of the gate slamming shut. There was a jingle of keys, and then the click of a lock, as Sakura turned to regard her captors murderously. They obviously sensed her less-than-friendly intent.

"Not pleased with the accommodations, Kunoichi-chan?" The ANBU who had 'escorted' her sneered.

She didn't speak, and instead swiveled around to show him her back as she examined the cell. It was, in fact, surprisingly clean for a holding cell; fresh straw was strewn across the floor, and a reasonably sanitary cot was shoved into one corner. The young woman knew for a fact that the cells in Iwa border checkpoints were not half as comfortable as this.

She turned around at the sound of someone fiddling with the gate, to find the first ANBU attaching a piece of paper to the lock.

"That's a chakra supresser." He informed her cheerfully. "You won't be able to use any chakra-based techniques while in that cell of yours, so don't even think about giving Inoshishi-kun any trouble."

"I don't need chakra to do that." She growled, and he snorted.

"This place is almost as secure as a hidden village. You wouldn't make it a mile."

"We'll see about that."

The man made an irritably disbelieving sound, before turning to clap his comrade on the shoulder, saying,"Good luck." before moving off down the hall.

After a moment, 'Inoshishi-kun' melted into the shadows, and Sakura found herself as alone as she would ever be, in a holding cell along with dozens of filthy criminals and a handful of guards lurking about.

After a moment, she padded over to the cot, and sat down with a 'whump'. The ANBU hadn't made any effort to question her, and they had even allowed her to leave her mask fixed in place. After her second escape attempt, her escort had disarmed her, but it hadn't been thorough search by any means; she still had at least a dozen senbon tucked away on her person, along with an exploding tag or two. So what could they possibly want from her?

She didn't know how long she sat there, rapidly shifting through possibilities and analyzing her chances of escape. She was shaken out of her stupor by the distant sound of a door slamming shut. Moments later, she observed as two figures appeared at the end of the corridor. As they moved into the light cast by a cheap fluorescent bulb, Sakura saw that it was the female Uchiha, escorting a battered-looking Otter.

The ANBU with the keys faded back into Sakura's line of sight, and silently unlocked the cell door. The Uchiha gave Otter a none-too-gentle shove, and a moment later the gate had been slammed shut and locked once more, the chakra suppressing seal fixed securely in place.

"Get upstairs. The captain wants to see you." The Konoha kunoichi said, and the ANBU with the boar mask nodded once, before darting out of sight.

The Uchiha faded into the darkness once more, although Sakura had no doubt that she was vigilantly lurking somewhere nearby. She turned to Otter, noticing the woman's ragged appearance, and the fact that she was slightly favoring her right leg.

"Are you alright?"

Almost automatically, she closed the gap between them, and placed her hands on the exposed skin of the woman's upper arm, fully prepared to execute a diagnostic jutsu. It was only when she attempted to call up the familiar glow of medical chakra, and abysmally failed, that she remembered the chakra inhibitor on the gate.

"Shit. I forgot about the seal."

Otter nodded tiredly, stumbling a few steps before managing to sit down on the cot. Concerned, Sakura quickly kneeled before her, and instructed the other kunoichi to remove her mask. Technically, it was against protocol to remove one's mask while one duty—particularly while in enemy territory—but at the moment, Sakura was frankly more concerned with her companion's health than any article in the ANBU Code of Conduct.

Otter tiredly complied, and Sakura proceeded to check her vitals, and examine her injured ankle. Within a few minutes, she was rising to her feet.

"You're fine, just chakra exhausted. You've got a minor sprain, but it should heal in the next couple of days."

The woman nodded, her dark gaze trained down at the flagstones between Sakura's feet.

"Usagi. You know the standard protocol for this situation?" She inquired flatly, her onyx eyes dulled by exhaustion and defeat. Sakura swallowed past a sudden dryness in her throat.

"Of course. ANBU Code of Conduct, Article six, Section three: In the event of capture, an operative should attempt escape. If it becomes clear that escape is not feasible, operative should then proceed to...to terminate, in order to preserve village secrets."

"Right. You always were clever, weren't you? Top of your class every year, am I right?"

"No." Sakura denied softly. "Some years I was first, but...most years I came in second." _To Kenta. _

Otter shook her head distractedly.

"Ah well, it doesn't really matter anyway."

She looked up at Sakura, and masked emerald met resigned onyx.

"You know the protocol."

The young woman nodded, bending down to remove the sandal on her right foot. Otter did the same, and after a moment of searching, both kunoichi found the correct crease in their shoes to press. Reaching into the created opening, Sakura's fingers curled around a tiny, cylindrical object. Drawing it out to the light, she felt her heart turn to lead at the sight of the tiny, white pill.

Sliding her shoe back on, she sat down on the cot next to Otter, her eyes never leaving the cyanide capsule that, if she were willing to sacrifice herself for the sake of her village, would end her life.

* * *

**A/N: ****The cover image to this story is a piece by Cynchick (author/artist extraordinaire) who has graciously granted me permission to use the image. If you haven't read her stories, look her up—they are truly beautiful works, and I would highly recommend reading all of them. Also, look her up on Deviant Art, as she's not just a talented author, but an incredible illustrator! **

** Anyway, that's all for now. Next chapter should involve Sakura's arrival in Konoha. Thank you all for reviewing, I hope you will continue in your support of this story!**


	5. Attempted Loyalty

Chapter Five

Attempted Loyalty

_The rubbery, sterilized scent of the hospital was one that Sakura found both familiar and comforting. As she made her way down the hallway, clipboard in hand, the young kunoichi inhaled another lungfull of the smell of antiseptic._

_ Iwa was not known for its stellar medical program. As a general rule, Iwa shinobi did not become medics. The Academy curriculum tended to focus on stamina and raw strength as opposed to the finer points of chakra manipulation, and so the Academy rarely churned out a student with the sufficient control to become a medic. As a result, at the tender age of fifteen, chunin medical ninja Haruno Sakura was the highest-ranking medical officer in the entire village. Even the hospital administrators treated her with a healthy respect, and since her installment as head physician at the Iwagakure Hospital, she had been working tirelessly to improve the sorry state of the facilities. _

_ Sakura glanced down at her wrist watch, noting that it was just now nearing 3 AM. She had volunteered to supervise the night shift—she was still on a nocturnal schedule from a recent mission which had involved nighttime surveillance—but she was due to get off at 3:15. _

_ Just as she was turning to make her way to the changing rooms, she was accosted by a gasping nurse whom she vaguely recognized as Yuki. The woman's ample bosom was heaving frantically as she grasped at Sakura's shoulder, and her eyes were panicked._

_ "Sakura-sempai! A three-man team just got brought in from border patrol. One of their members is in critical condition—multiple lacerations on the torso, and he's in the advanced stages of shock due to exposure to potassium cyanide."_

_ The kunoichi's expression became a calm mask of professionalism, as she calmly inquired which operating room the patient had been brought to. _

_ "Room 145. But...but Sakura-sempai, it's...the three-man team is Squad 5." _

_ Sakura felt her blood run cold. Squad 5._

_ Without a further word to the gasping nurse, the girl shoved her clipboard in Yuki's general direction, before turning on her heel and dashing off towards room 145. As she ran, she felt the icy fingers of terror grip her heart. Who had been poisoned? Not Ichigo-sensei, surely; the man was practically invincible, and in the six years she had known him, Sakura couldn't once recall seeing him injured. So was it Kenta? Masaru? _

_ Further speculation was halted, as she drew up before the door to the operating room. Reaching into her medic belt, she drew out a pair of latex gloves and snapped them on, running on autopilot as she pushed open the door with her shoulder. _

_ Three nurses and a chunin medic—Hanako, Sakura distantly recalled—were all crowding over the operating table, the inexperienced medic shakily giving instructions to the nurses. The girl looked up, and relief filled her large brown eyes at the appearance of her superior._

_ "Sakura-sempai! The patient is in critical condition. Entry-point for the cyanide is the kunai slash on his left shoulder."_

_ Two of the nurses shuffled to the side, to allow the pink-haired medic clear access to the operating table. Her heart jumped to her throat. _

_ Kenta._

_ For several moments she was frozen, wide green eyes staring unseeingly at her prone teammate. It was only the nurses' continued urgings that finally snapped her out of her stupor. _

_ "Prepare an injection of hydroxocobalamin." She instructed the nurse to her left, her voice having lost all inflection in favor of cool, unruffled professionalism. "Hanako, begin healing the lacerations on his torso while I run a diagnostic." _

_ They rushed to do as she said, as Sakura's hands kindled with the warm glow of healing chakra and she began the familiar task of scanning Kenta's body. The poison had entered his bloodstream and was already fairly widespread, but by some stroke of sheer luck, it hadn't reached his heart yet, which meant there was still hope. _

_ "Hydroxocobalamin?" She demanded, holding out a hand. Within moments, a syringe had been pressed into her palm, and without taking her eyes off of Kenta—his breathing had become labored, and his blood pressure was beginning to bottom out—she injected the antidote with a steady hand. _

_ With the antidote working to neutralize the cyanide's effects, Sakura turned to her teammate's other injuries. Hanako had made a small amount of headway on his torso slashes, but not enough to make up for his continued rapid blood loss. The young chunin's face was shiny with sweat, her hands shaking slightly over Kenta's abdomen, as she struggled to close one of the larger wounds. Sakura quickly added her own efforts, chakra sparking back to life, and within minutes the slash had knitted itself shut._

_ Hanako shot the girl a grateful look, and reached into her belt to withdraw a soldier pill, which she hurriedly tossed back. Around the two medics, the nurses were frantically attempting to staunch the young man's bleeding through conventional means, and one of them had managed to hook him up to an IV. _

_ After several minutes more of laboring to close her teammate's gaping wounds, Sakura ran another diagnostic, and felt intense relief wash over her at what she found: the injection of hydroxocobalamin had accomplished its purpose of converting the cyanide into cyanocobalamin, a compound which could be safely filtered out of Kenta's system by his kidneys. _

_ "The patient is stabilized." She declared after another ten minutes, when the worst of the lacerations had been closed, and the more minor injuries had all been expertly disinfected and bandaged by the nurses. _

_ Hanako stepped back from the operating table, shaking as she pushed sweaty bangs away from her forehead. The medic wobbled slightly, grasping at the table for support, and one of the nurses was quick to grab her by the elbow and guide her to a chair in the corner of the room. _

_ As Sakura felt the adrenaline rush wear off, she also began to experience the symptoms of chakra exhaustion. But she would not rest until she was certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that Kenta was in no more danger._

_ "Were any of the other squad members injured?" She inquired of one of the nurses, who was bandaging a shallow scratch on Kenta's left cheek. _

_ "The other chunin received some minor contusions, and the team leader is suffering from chakra exhaustion—nothing serious." The woman replied, much to Sakura's relief. "They're in the next room, if you would like to examine them yourself, Sakura-sempai." _

_ Paranoid, the pink-haired medic insisted on running a final diagnostic on Kenta before she would leave the room. When she had assured herself to the point where her nerves stopped twinging so unpleasantly, she made her way through an adjoining door into one of the larger operating rooms._

_ The moment she entered the room, she was greeted with the sound of enraged shouting. _

_ "He's my teammate, dammit! You have to let me through!" _

_ Sakura was unsurprised to find Masaru fighting against the restraining grips of two nurses and one of the chunin medics, as he struggled to launch himself off the operating table and into the next room. _

_ Ichigo-sensei, true to form, was doing nothing to soothe his former student's nerves, and was instead laying sprawled out on the adjacent operating table, snoring lightly. At Sakura's appearance, however, his eyes snapped open, and he propped himself up on one elbow to assess her. Apparently he hadn't been as dead to the world as he had seemed, Sakura reflected wryly. _

_ "How's Brat #1?" He inquired._

_ He had always referred to Kenta as 'Brat #1', mostly due to the fact that he knew it would enrage Masaru beyond belief to be ranked second to anyone. _

_ "He's in stable condition. It's a good thing you got him back here so quickly, Sensei. He might not have made it otherwise." _

_ Ichigo nodded, his scarred features devoid of any expression. _

_ "You did good, kid."_

_ With that, he collapsed backwards onto the operating table, and his snoring resumed. Rolling her eyes, Sakura turned to Masaru, who was too incensed to have even noticed her presence. Brushing aside the medic, she grabbed her teammate by both shoulders, and gave him a none-too-gentle shake._

_ "If you could quiet down for five seconds, you might have noticed that I just said that Kenta is going to be fine!" She exclaimed in exasperation, as Masaru fought against her restraining hands._

_ After a moment he stilled, his muscles slackening under her iron grip, and he stared at her uncomprehendingly. _

_ "Going to be...fine?" He said tentatively after a moment, and Sakura fought the urge to roll her eyes._

_ "_Yes_! His condition is stable, and he should be waking up within the next day or two." _

_ "Oh..." The boy trailed off. _

_ He began to sway slightly, and a moment later it was only Sakura's slightly loosened hold on his shoulders that stopped him from collapsing onto the sterilized linoleum. Gently, she guided him to a chair beside the second operating table, and helped him to shakily sit down._

_ "The Suna patrol just came out of nowhere..." He muttered, as one of the nurses tentatively pressed a piece of gauze into the cut on his shoulder. "It was my fault that Kenta got injured." He held up a hand to forestall Sakura's protests, his eyes hardening slightly. "No, Sakura-chan, it was. I...wasn't paying attention, and he had to take a kunai for me. Turned out it was poisoned. He could have _died, _Sakura, and it would have been my fault."_

_ The girl bit the inside of her lip in distress, as she gently ran her hand through Masaru's sweat-matted hair. She had no words of consolation for him. _

_ Surprisingly enough, it was Ichigo-sensei who broke the heavy silence that had settled on the room._

_ "I'd be willing to bet that Brat #1—ahem, _Kenta-kun—_doesn't see it that way. Any true shinobi would be willing to sacrifice himself to protect a comrade. He would have seen it as...worth it."_

_ Sakura nodded. Their sensei was right; Kenta would have seen it that way, there was no doubt about it. But this just seemed to trouble Masaru even further._

_ "But I don't want him to die because of me!" He burst out, his dark eyes shining with distress. _

_ "You're being selfish, Brat #2." Ichigo sighed, slinging an arm over his eyes as though to shield them not only from the harsh light of the operating room, but from the loud voice of his student._

_ "What?! What do you mean I'm—"_

_ "Would you sacrifice your life to protect your team?" Ichigo demanded, his voice taking on a hard edge._

_ "_Of course!_" Masaru practically roared, causing several of the nurses attending him to jump back in fright._

_ "Then how can you say that you don't want them to do the same? You're being selfish and hypocritical. Sakura and Kenta would gladly take a kunai for you—Kenta already has, as a matter of fact. You can't say that you won't allow them to protect you, when you would lay down your life to defend them." _

_ Masaru spluttered frantically, his face turning a brilliant shade of puce as he glared at his teacher. One of the nurses frowned at him concernedly, and turned to give Ichigo a reproachful look. _

_ "Sato-san, please refrain from causing Masaru-kun any more stress—he needs to relax." _

_ Sakura seconded this, shooting her sensei and exasperated glance. He was already 'asleep' again. Sighing, she turned back to Masaru, expecting to see him fuming. Instead, he was quiet and had an rare expression of thoughtfulness._

_ "What is it?" She asked curiously, and for several moments her teammate didn't answer._

_ Suddenly his head snapped up, his eyes burning with conviction as they met Sakura's._

_ "Sakura-chan, I promise I won't ever let anything happen to you or Kenta _ever_ again." _

_ The kunoichi felt her eyes soften, and she let her hand slip down to rest on her teammate's shoulder._

_ "I won't let anything happen to you or Masaru ever again. I promise."_

* * *

The first thing Sakura became aware of was the steady thudding in her chest.

Her heart was beating. Inwardly, the kunoichi frowned. That wasn't right; she had taken the cyanide capsule. By all rights, she should be quite dead. Blinking, she took a moment to allow her eyes to adjust to the darkness of her surroundings. The block of holding cells was silent, aside from the occasional squeak of a rodent, or the guttural snore of a prisoner.

She whipped her head to the left, and was met with the sight of Otter's cold, lifeless features. Ignoring the way her muscles twinged at the movement, Sakura forced herself to sit up and take her companion's pulse. The young woman felt a familiar twinge of regret and grief, as her fingers registered that Otter's heart had ceased to beat.

Upon closer examination, Sakura observed the white froth flecking the sides of Otter's mouth, and the stiffness of her limbs. It was undoubtedly cyanide poisoning, brought on by the pill the kunoichi had willingly ingested several—minutes? hours? Sakura had no idea how long it had been—ago. She herself had swallowed the very same capsule alongside her comrade; so why was she still alive?

Her speculation was ended by a flare of chakra directly outside the cell. The woman whipped to her feet, taking several guarded steps back from the gate as a tall shinobi stepped into view. He was wearing a standard-issue flak jacket, and his Konoha forehead protector drooped over one eye, concealing most of what was not already obscured by a tight-fitting nylon mask. But the most attention-grabbing thing about his appearance was his shock of gravity-defying silver hair, which made it easy for Sakura to pin him to his Bingo Book profile: Hatake Kakashi, jounin-level ninja of Konohagakure, also known as 'Copy Ninja Kakashi'. Rumored to have mastered over one-thousand jutsu, and in possession of a single sharingan eye. Kill on sight.

Sakura's fast-moving brain whirred through all this information in less than a second, and her eyes narrowed as she took another step back from the gate. The only thing preventing her from moving back even further was the cold stone wall inches from her back.

There was something vaguely familiar about the way Hatake stood, his hands buried in his pockets and his posture lazily relaxed. But Sakura quickly discarded the possibility that they had met before; the only context for their acquaintance would have been as opponents in battle, and the young kunoichi knew she wouldn't likely have forgotten fighting the infamous Sharingan Kakashi.

The flare of chakra had been a courtesy: the shinobi way of knocking. Sakura had no doubt that in her weakened state, she most likely wouldn't have noticed Hatake, had he not made himself known to her. Which meant that he wanted to talk.

Most likely the ANBU had sent him down here to interrogate her, although when Sakura thought about it, that didn't make much sense. It was probable that Hatake would be passing through the border post on his way to or from Konoha; but why would the ANBU have sent him to do the dirty work, if he was merely passing through on a mission?

Something didn't add up; there was some fact, some crucial detail, that Sakura knew she was missing here. But before she could contemplate it any further, the jounin spoke.

"You have my condolences."

Sakura frowned in confusion, before glancing down at Otter's prone form in understanding. She glared, and would have replied, but he was already plowing onwards.

"Cyanide poisoning, from the looks of it. I wonder how that could have happened." His tone was airy and light, but his single visible eye was hard and calculating.

"She was loyal until the end. She sacrificed herself, rather than staying alive to be tortured and interrogated by you bastards. _Some_ shinobi have honor." Sakura bit out.

"Hm...village loyalty. How admirable."

He seemed unperturbed by her barb, and the young woman's glare only intensified. She didn't grace him with a response, but it seemed he wasn't expecting one.

"You know, it's the strangest thing, I was just chatting with some of the ANBU who brought you in earlier, and they said that they found three kids a few miles from where they caught up to your team. Now what would three children be doing all alone out in the wilderness?"

Sakura blanched. She had nearly forgotten about Magumi's sons, having had to shove the matter to a corner of her mind in favor of focusing on more immediate problems.

Apparently her reaction wasn't lost on the Konoha jounin.

"They're right upstairs, you know. When the ANBU asked them what they were doing in the forest, apparently they said they were on their way to Konoha, and 'Kunoichi-san' had promised to take them there. And the platoon couldn't just leave them out in the woods."

"What of it?" She snapped, fighting to conceal her growing panic.

Hatake shrugged, the gesture embodying noncommittal.

"Just thought you might be interested."

_He knows._

That much was obvious. But what could the enemy ninja make of it? The children didn't have any sworn allegiance to Konoha, after all, and there wasn't much they could do with the information that Sakura had been escorting three young children through Grass Country.

After a moment of deliberation, she decided to ignore the jounin—while still keeping her guard up—as he wasn't making his intentions clear. Instead, Sakura knelt beside Otter's body, and placed two fingers gently upon the woman's forehead.

"They are not dead who live in the hearts they leave behind," She murmured, quietly enough that she didn't invite the Konoha jounin to eavesdrop on the ancient Iwa custom being preformed. "There is no death, only a change of worlds. You leave this world with honor in you wake, glory and loyalty as your legacy. Journey onwards, shinobi of Iwagakure."

Biting her left thumb, she smeared a tiny amount of blood onto Otter's pale forehead, in a roughly circular shape.

Earth Country had a very superstitious culture, by nature, and its citizens were very devout in their worship of the spirits. These customs extended to its hidden village, and Iwa shinobi tended to be very respectful of the old ways. Although Sakura herself was quite secular in comparison to most of her compatriots, she still held a healthy respect for the dead, and would never willingly leave a fallen comrade without the proper rights.

She rose to her feet slowly, turning her gaze away from Otter's corpse. The young woman shot a bland glare in the direction of the gate. Hatake hadn't moved an inch throughout the ritual, to Sakura's slight ire. She had expected him to leave, what with the task of unsettling her thoroughly accomplished.

Doing her best to ignore him—was he here merely to gloat? That wasn't it keeping with the patchy psychoanalysis Sakura had skimmed once or twice in her Bingo Book—she sat down on the cot in the corner of the cell, and proceeded to stare fixedly at the stone wall, all the while running through various scenarios in her head. There were so many questions unanswered at the moment. The situation she was in was not even remotely similar to any of the simulations during her ANBU or Academy training; they weren't interrogating her, they hadn't searched her for messages or hidden weapons, and although they had placed a chakra inhibitor on the gate, the kunoichi was confident that another day or so in the cell would see her successful escape. They had also let her leave her mask in place, concealing her identity. Not that that mattered now, as she had taken it off in order to toss back the cyanide—yet another unsolved puzzle—and hadn't bothered to replace it.

Not to mention the fact that, as a foreign ANBU, she should technically have been handled by the Konoha ANBU alone, not some random elite jounin who just so happened to be passing through the border checkpoint. So what the _hell _were they up to?

"Jounin kunoichi of Iwagakure, Haruno Sakura." Her head whipped upwards at the sound of her name.

She wasn't carrying identification of any kind—that was rule number one for an ANBU—and she wasn't in Konoha's Bingo Book. So how did he know who she was? The jounin was already continuing, speaking in a flat, bored monotone which had the effect of convincing her that he would rather be anywhere else than here.

"Registered medic nin, up until ten months ago a high-ranking official at the village hospital. Suspected ANBU affiliation, current location unknown." He finished in the same lackadaisical vein, and sighed slightly, his single visible eye drooping.

Was this man really _the _Hatake Kakashi, Sakura found herself wondering. He certainly didn't look like much to the untrained eye, she reflected, but that only served to put a skilled shinobi more on-guard. Everything about him screamed 'nonthreatening', and the kunoichi was well aware of how much this spoke to his skill. Her hackles rose a centimeter further.

"You probably haven't heard of her." He continued conversationally. "Not in the Bingo Books—medics usually aren't. But I'm sure you know that—the ANBU captain tells me you're a medic."

Sakura inwardly rolled her eyes in a mixture of anger and exasperation. Only years of training kept her face free of expression. If he had such detailed information on her already—detailed enough that Sakura found her blood boiling at the thought of the spies who were obviously deeply imbedded within the village—he no doubt also had a physical description. His pretense that he wasn't well aware of who he was talking to was infuriating.

Instead of retaliating, she managed to remain silent and implacable, her gaze still trained on the wall opposite her cot.

So they knew exactly who she was.

_Why?_

_ Why?_

_ WHY?_

The question echoed around her head dozens—no, hundreds—of times, blending into itself over and over again until it was nearly deafening. She had all the pieces to put the puzzle together; they just didn't quite fit.

"What are you doing here?" She ground out at last, low and venomous.

"Me? I'm just here to brief you."

"Brief me? What the hell for?"

He shrugged, seeming to have lost his tenuous hold on interest.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out."

At that moment, the female Uchiha from earlier appeared behind Hatake in a whirl of leaves.

"Hatake-san, our squad is prepared for departure."

Her tone was formal and professional, but Sakura's feminine intuition picked up on the undercurrent beneath her words. Evidently there was or had been something between her and the jounin. Sakura filed away this piece of information; in her eyes, any bit of knowledge in this situation, however small, was priceless.

"Wonderful." His tone suggested that it was anything but. "I hope you don't mind warmer weather. Fire Country is a bit toasty this time of year."

* * *

**A/N: Et fin. I do hope I haven't butchered Kakashi too horribly. He's hard to write in the best of circumstances, and to make matters worse, we really don't even know what he was like in his late teens/early twenties, after the Kyuubi attack but before SS. So I'm kind of fumbling around in the dark here...**


	6. Almost Escape

Chapter Six

Almost Escape

"How'd she die?"

Sakura warily looked up, tearing her gaze away from where it had been trained on the forest floor.

"What?" She snapped, her tone bordering on acidic.

The Konoha ANBU beside her shrugged, seeming unconcerned by her venomous expression.

"The other Iwa chick. The one with the dark hair."

Sakura's eyes narrowed further, and with a great effort, she refrained from responding with a few choice expletives.

She had been traveling with the enemy ANBU platoon, plus Hatake, for two days now. They were deep into Fire Country, and with every step closer to Konoha, the young kunoichi felt her heart grow heavier. It was obvious that the ANBU had no intention of allowing her to escape. Before they had departed from the border checkpoint, she had at last been thoroughly searched and stripped of all her weapons. They had also attached a thin paper bracelet to her left wrist, which one of the ANBU—the same one who had escorted her to the border checkpoint three days previously—had cheerfully informed her was a chakra inhibitor.

Sakura was an extremely intelligent person. Despite her fiery temper and extreme hatred of all things Konoha, she was well-aware that offering resistance could only worsen her situation. The other ninja obviously were keeping her alive for a reason, which she would most likely discover once they reached the village. But that didn't mean they would refrain from harming her, if provoked.

As it was, she was being treated very well. The enemy shinobi rarely spoke to her, and when they did they were calm and professional—bordering on courteous. During the day, she was allowed to travel alongside them unbound, save for the chakra inhibitor around her wrist, and they didn't even tie her up when they made camp at night. Her situation was about as good as it could get for a prisoner of war, the kunoichi thought wryly. She would be foolish to aggravate her captors when escape was such an impossible prospect.

But that didn't mean she had to be polite, she thought now, shooting the ANBU yet another riled look. They had stopped to make camp just as the sun was brushing the horizon; ordinarily an ANBU platoon would have kept moving throughout the night, but with a prisoner in tow, protocol was different.

The ANBU sitting several feet to her right—whose mask was painted with a leering monkey's face—sighed dramatically in response to her continued silence.

"So cold..."

Sakura huffed in annoyance, and angled her body even further away from the Konoha nin.

"I'm just trying to stimulate conversation, Kunoichi-chan..."

She was on the brink of telling him exactly where he could shove his conversation, when she was beat to the punch by the Uchiha woman, who had returned from replenishing her teammates' water supplies at a nearby river.

"Stop harassing the prisoner, Saru." She ordered, tossing the man a filled canteen.

"Aw, come on, she obviously likes it." Monkey protested, reaching up to pull off his mask.

Sakura started, even as the Uchiha woman followed suit. She felt her hackles rise slightly with the unspoken statement; it didn't matter if she knew their identities, because she wouldn't ever escape to tell anyone.

Monkey was young, maybe a year or two older than Sakura. He was quite handsome, which she somehow found unsurprising, as he bore himself with the air of a guy who knew he was attractive. But other than his good looks, his appearance was rather nondescript: shaggy brown hair was pushed away from eyes of the same shade, and his only distinguishing feature was a small freckle on the left side of his jaw.

As she watched, he took a swig from the canteen, before rifling around in his pockets and coming up with a senbon. Sakura tensed up slightly, preparing to spring to her feet, but relaxed slightly when he proceeded to merely wedge the needle in between two of his teeth.

"That kills your enamel." She informed him stiffly, unable to hold back the comment. As it slipped out, she felt a wave of nostalgia wash over her.

* * *

_"Ichigo-sensei, don't you know that chewing on senbon is bad for your teeth?"_

_ "Ah...is that so..."_

_ "Come on, Sensei, you're a grown man! Just spit it out!_

_ "...no." _

* * *

Sakura was jolted back to the present by the sound of the Konoha nin snorting loudly.

"You sound just like my sister. She's always yapping at me to spit 'em out."

"You'll have no teeth by the time you're thirty-five." She replied waspishly. "My sensei used to do the same thing, and he..." She trailed off, before 'tsk'ing loudly to herself and turning her back on the man once more.

The truth was, she couldn't have finished that sentence, because her sensei hadn't lived to be thirty-five.

Instead of dwelling on this, she turned her attention to the Uchiha, whom she was seeing unmasked for the first time. As Sakura took in the other kunoichi's features, she had to keep from whistling; the woman was breathtaking.

Smooth, milky white skin, soft dark brown eyes, and full red lips were framed by twin curtains of raven hair. Her beauty was unmarred by any scars or dirt, and she looked as fresh as if she had been sitting inside all day, as opposed to flying through the trees at top speed for upwards of eight hours.

Self-consciously, Sakura recalled her own features, and the long white scar that stretched across her left cheekbone, not to mention the fact that she was filthy from days of traveling and imprisonment. Next to the Uchiha woman, she presented a sorry visage indeed.

Inwardly snorting, the kunoichi crossed her arms over her chest, and scooted another few inches away from Monkey.

"So what's it like in Iwa?"

Sakura glanced over her shoulder, disbelieving. Monkey—who she was wishing would finish up with his shift on guard duty as soon as possible—was leaning against the trunk of a tree, senbon hanging from the corner of his mouth in a fashion that made her want to just reach over and yank it away.

Obviously he wasn't discouraged by frosty silence, so Sakura answered, albeit reluctantly.

"Less forest. More mountains." She replied shortly. Shooting him a pointed look, she added, "People tend to mind their own business."

The underlying barb beneath the comment seemed to go over Monkey's head, because he merely smirked slightly.

"Yup, you Iwa shinobi are always so close-mouthed and stern."

"You could use a little more of that, Saru." The Uchiha woman proclaimed, approaching with a second canteen in hand. "Here," She continued, handing the filled water bottle to Sakura.

The kunoichi took it with a muted thanks, and proceeded to down half the canteen's contents in one go. She was tired and dehydrated from that day's stretch of traveling. Despite her near-perfect physical condition, she was unaccustomed to moving via the trees; like she had told Monkey, Stone Country had a great deal fewer forests than Fire, and most shinobi travel involved navigating intricate mountain tunnels and rappelling down cliff faces, as opposed to leaping to and from tree branches.

As she returned the lid to the canteen, the platoon's third member reappeared in the clearing. The captain had remained behind at the border checkpoint, which was not unusual; often ANBU squads operated independently of a captain, and Sakura was inwardly pleased that the unnervingly powerful platoon leader had opted to stay at the checkpoint. And with the death of the squad's previous third member, the ANBU from the prison block, Boar, was traveling with them.

"Perimeter's secure." The man proclaimed stiffly, before moving off to sit at the end of the clearing farthest from Sakura and the two other ANBU.

"...stick up his ass..." The young kunoichi thought she heard Monkey muttering.

"Where's Kakashi-senpai?" The Uchiha woman inquired of the man's back.

"Dunno." He grunted.

She rolled her eyes, exchanging an annoyed look with Monkey.

"I'm going to go look for him." She proclaimed, and the shinobi rolled his eyes exaggeratedly.

"Great idea, Neko-chan. We all know how he just loves being fussed over."

Uchiha shot him a withering look, before launching herself into the branches above the clearing and disappearing into the forest. Monkey sighed expansively, leaning back and tucking his hands behind his head.

"Lazy bastard always gets the girls..." He grumbled to himself, and Sakura shot him a bemused look.

"Why is he traveling with us?" She said at last, probing for information.

Monkey shot her a look which said he knew exactly what her intentions were, before smiling wryly.

"I really couldn't say. I'm a mere peon."

Sakura snorted loudly.

"You're an elite ninja—hardly a 'mere peon'."

"Do you really think my rank matters? In the end, we're all pawns—genin, ANBU, or civilian. Don't go asking me about any grand schemes or conspiracies." He finished on a lighter note, but the edge of bitterness was still unmistakable.

* * *

Sakura blinked herself awake just as the sky was beginning to lighten. She sat up, glancing over at the sleeping ANBU. Monkey and the Uchiha woman—who had returned later that evening, conspicuously without Hatake in tow—were lightly sleeping at a companionably close distance from one another, while Boar had set up his bedroll at the edge of the clearing farthest from the other shinobi.

Monkey had offered Sakura a rough, slightly tatty blanket on their first night of travel, but the proud kunoichi had frostily refused. She didn't regret the decision; Fire Country was far warmer than her native land, and she was accustomed to sleeping out in the open even when it was fifty degrees cooler than it was now.

Frowning, Sakura took note that Boar was asleep in his bedroll—or at least he appeared to be. Sakura recalled that Monkey had taken the first watch, and Uchiha the second, meaning that by all appearances, none of the Konoha nin were currently awake.

Cautiously, she rose to her feet, and took a hesitant step away from the two sleeping ANBU. When neither of them stirred, she began to move more assuredly, gliding across the clearing in absolute silence. She didn't really have a plan, and realistically her chances of escape were very low. But she would feel guilty if she didn't at least attempt to get away from her captors, when they left her an opening such as this one.

She fixed the thin paper bracelet around her wrist with a baleful look. According to Monkey, if she tried to remove it, it would cause her chakra to flare, which was an easily-detectable signal to any ninja worth his salt. But before her considerable intellect could begin puzzling out a solution to the problem, she felt her senses prickle unpleasantly.

She whirled around, eyes probing the lightening clearing for any sign of a watcher. After a moment, her eyes fell on the figure leaning casually against an elm tree several meters to her left.

"Going somewhere?"

The young kunoichi grimaced. Of course, she had forgotten about the jounin who was inexplicably accompanying the ANBU platoon to Konoha.

"Call of nature." She stated flatly, studiously avoiding the one visible eye that was trained on her.

"Ah. Of course. Well then, I'll wake up Neko so she can accompany you..."

"There's no need." The kunoichi responded stiffly, after a moment of charged silence. "I can hold it."

"I thought you might be able to." He said drily.

Sakura found herself having to take several deep breaths just to reign in her flaring temper. Marching over to a fallen tree near the middle of the clearing, she parked herself squarely in the center of the trunk.

After a moment, her eyes narrowed and she glanced over at Hatake. He was still leaning against the tree near the edge of the clearing, and his single visible eye was facing away from the pink-haired kunoichi.

"Why are you here?" She burst out at last.

Sakura was fairly certain that she was supposed to be far more taciturn in this situation, as a captured ANBU operative. But at the same time, she had always been a precocious and curious young woman, and there had been far too many mysteries as of late for her to contain her curiosity.

The Konoha jounin didn't even twitch in response, and Sakura found herself practically burning a hole in the side of his masked cheek. When several more minutes passed without a response from the man, she took a deep breath and took to staring at the hard-packed earth of the clearing beneath her feet.

By nature, Iwa nin liked to have their feet on the ground; none of this flying through the trees nonsense. Sakura knew that she was at her strongest and least vulnerable with her feet solidly connected to the earth. Stirring a bit of the dirt with one sandaled foot, she almost unconciously channeled the smallest amount of chakra to the pad of her foot, and watched as the soil swirled around in a hyperactive vortex.

After a moment, her emerald eyes widened with shock, and the dirt all fell to the ground with the release of her chakra output. _She could channel chakra through her feet_, the kunoichi realized with a jolt. Of course, it made sense; she couldn't have otherwise kept up with the Konoha shinobi's progress through the trees. But what were the implications when it came to escaping?

Sakura was an extremely accomplished medic nin, with chakra control that was nearly perfect; she could shape chakra just as efficiently through her feet as she could through her hands.

Her mind was still whirring hyper-actively with the new possibilities it had been presented, when the rest of the Konoha platoon awoke some thirty minutes later. She was just beginning to formulate a plan, when her entire thought process froze at what Monkey was casually saying to Uchiha.

"...be in Konoha by noon today, I'm guessing. _Thank god_, I'm so sick and tired of field rations."

Sakura's eyes widened, and her hands clenched tightly together. If she was going to try and escape, it would have to be before noon that very day.

* * *

The kunoichi sent another hot burst of chakra pulsing through the soles of her feet, wincing as she felt burns appear on her ankles and toes. But the injuries were well worth it, as she shot forward several dozen meters, leaving the signatures in pursuit of her in the dust.

It was fortunate for Sakura that she had spent the last few days getting a crash-course in tree traveling, otherwise she never would have been able to outpace the more experienced Konoha nin. As it was, the young woman was well aware she only had a little under five minutes before her scant lead on the ANBU platoon would be eaten up. Her only hope of escape would be to find an appropriate hiding spot and then use the small interlude bought by her mad dash for freedom to completely mask her chakra.

As if some god up in heaven had heard her thoughts—it was about time she got some sympathy from whatever deity was up there, the woman thought irritably—Sakura's eyes immediately fell upon an enormous and ancient oak tree several hundred feet to her left. The tree's roots were gnarled and convoluted, and from what Sakura could see, there was enough space in the dark recesses beneath the roots for a kunoichi on the petite side to hide.

Once again increasing her chakra output, the young woman wove her way through the forest canopy at breakneck speed, until she was perched in the branches of the ancient oak. Leaping off the branch, she lit down on the forest floor with only the slightest of wobbles—she was still weak and slightly chakra exhausted from battle, even after nearly three days.

Taking a bounding step, she swiveled slightly onto her side, sending her body shooting underneath the roots of the tree. She came to a halt in the center of the darkened, almost cave-like area beneath the roots, and quickly sat up, curling her back up against the trunk of the oak and masking her chakra.

Due to her perfect control and intimate knowledge of how chakra functioned and was detected, Sakura was an expert at concealing her own signature. Even a sensor nin would have been hard-pressed to find Haruno Sakura when she was masking her chakra. Releasing a pent-up breath, the young kunoichi attempted to release some of the tension in her bunched muscles, and attempted to center herself.

There was less than a 50% chance that she would successfully get away from the Konoha ninja. After all, she had seen the ANBU officers' faces, and had been exposed to several other useful pieces of information throughout their journey. They would not return to their village now, not without her either as their prisoner or dead.

Sakura didn't fear death, but it had been a long time since she had longed for it—those days, she sincerely hoped, were over for good. She didn't fear torture either; the prospects of pain and injury were familiar to every shinobi. What she did fear was the unknown, and so far her entire capture had been one mystery following another. The young kunoichi couldn't fight an enemy she couldn't see.

Shaken out of her moment of contemplation, she shrank back against the trunk of the tree, even as the chakra signals of the Konoha nin passed through the trees overhead. The three ANBU's signatures didn't hesitate for a moment, even as they passed directly above her hiding spot. Sakura had almost released a relieved breath, when she felt the signatures circle back and drop to the ground. Within a minute or two, she could hear the faint sounds of footsteps, and it became obvious that the Konoha nin had convened—very unluckily for Sakura—in the clearing she was hiding in.

A moment later she felt a flare of chakra as Hatake body-flickered into place beside the rest of the Konoha shinobi.

"Captain, what's our next course of action? I can't sense her chakra anywhere within my peripheries." Sakura heard Uchiha inquire.

With a jolt, Sakura realized that Uchiha had addressed one of her companions as 'captain'. That could only mean that Hatake was, in fact, the captain of the Konoha platoon. At least that answered one of the woman's many questions, although she still couldn't fathom why he had revealed himself and his identity to her at all. Surely it would have been far more convenient—and adhesive to protocol—for him to maintain his anonymity.

"Search the area in a grid pattern. Her reserves won't last her for more than a few more kilometers, at this rate." She heard Hatake say, the lazy and aloof tone she had come to associate with him in the past few days completely gone.

"Yes, sir." She heard Monkey and Uchiha chorus dutifully. Boar remained silent and surly as ever.

Within moments, the signatures had disappeared from the clearing, and the kunoichi allowed herself to relax only slightly against the rough bark of the tree. Perhaps her attempt at escape wasn't so futile after all; the Uchiha hadn't been able to detect even a whisper of Sakura's chakra, and they had been mere meters apart.

It was just then that Sakura heard the baying of dogs, off to the east. Hatake had taken the grid of trees off the east, Sakura found herself faintly noting.

As the barking and howling grew ever closer, the young woman silently berated herself for not remembering that Hatake had a summoning contract with a handful of canine ninken—it was even on his bingo book profile, for god's sake!

It was no wonder she had been captured so easily, Sakura thought bitingly. She had been as careless and soft-hearted as a green genin lately, ever since assassinating Magumi a little over a week ago—it seemed as if it had been years since then. In fact, if she hadn't so idiotically allowed her emotions to get the best of her, she wouldn't have ever been in this mess; she would have just left Magumi's sons on the side of the road to get picked off by bandits, and would already be back in Iwa by this time.

It was vital, Sakura reflected rather bitterly, to remember that she was a killer first and a healer second. Once it had been the other way around; back before her family had been killed, and when she had still been working at the hospital, the young woman had given back three times as many lives as she had taken, had transfused three times as much blood as she had spilled.

But that side of her—the compassionate healer—had died alongside the last of her teammates. Or so she had thought. So she had hoped. Because it was painful to be compassionate, when you were a shinobi.

And then suddenly there was no more time for deep, insightful thought. Because Hatake's dogs—damned Hatake's goddamned dogs—had found her.

The entire oak tree shivered as something very _large _rammed into its trunk, sending clumps of dirt and moss showering down on Sakura from the roots arching over her head.

"Don't bother, Bull. I can crawl down in there and get her." Came a raspy voice from disconcertingly close by.

Suddenly the small, streamlined body of a pug had wriggled down between two of the roots closest to Sakura's left side.

The young woman scrambled backwards, feeling very awkward and unwieldy as she attempted to maneuver from her position crouched beneath the roots. The dog stared at her for a long moment, looking mightily unimpressed.

"_This _is what I get called away from a poker game with the guys for? I had a good hand too, you know! I mean, no offense pinkie, but you ain't exactly intimidating."

Sakura blinked wide, beryl eyes, feeling rather stupidly shocked. Of course she knew in theory that ninken could talk, but summoning contracts were very rare. Even more so in Iwa; she only knew of two shinobi in her village who had signed contracts, and she had never met any of their summons before. Seeing a dog talk was...unnerving, to say the least.

But after a moment, she was shaken out of her stupor by the sight of the insignia on the canine's forehead-protector—he might look like a cute lapdog, but he was a shinobi of Konoha in his own right, and that made him her enemy.

Channeling as much chakra as she could muster without blowing up her foot—which was an amount to be reckoned with—the kunoichi slammed her heel into the ground directly before the little pug.

As she had expected, the entire base of the oak tree, and the ground below it, exploded with a deafening crash, sending Sakura—and no doubt the pug—flying into the air. The kunoichi experienced a feeling of weightlessness as she soared through the atmosphere, and was preparing herself for the inevitable painful impact of the ground, when she felt a single muscled arm reach out to wrap around her midriff and yank her down onto a tree branch. She hit the branch with a jarring 'crunch', and would have fallen no doubt—in her state of disorientation and partial chakra-exhaustion—had it not been for her assailant's firm grip around her torso.

The moment she regained her bearings, Sakura rammed her elbow into Hatake's stomach, mere inches behind her back. The man released a pained grunt, but his grip on her didn't loosen in the slightest. If anything, it only tightened.

"Oof. You're awfully heavy, Sakura-chan. What are they feeding you up in Iwa, hm?" He drawled absently, even as she felt his other hand shift so that it was resting directly over her collarbone.

The young kunoichi stilled immediately as she recognized the subtle movement; one wrong move on her part, and he could and would snap her clavicle like a twig. She gritted her teeth, and she had no doubt that Hatake could hear them grinding together in agitation.

"Don't. Call me that." She hissed at last.

"Eh?"

"_Don't_. Call me that." She repeated, her tone dripping with a pure venomous anger—underlaid with a more subtle tone of some hidden pain.

No one had called her 'Sakura-chan' since Masaru had died. The last person she wanted to hear the idiotic nickname from was Hatake Kakashi.

"Why not? I think it's rather cute."

Sakura was becoming intensely aware of the fact that Hatake had been holding her entrapped against his own body for an uncomfortably long time; most of the dust had cleared from the surrounding trees at this point, even as the oak—which had inevitably fallen under the kunoichi's assault—creaked to a halt on its slow downward descent.

She shifted slightly, feeling her shoulder blades chafe against the front of his flak jacket. A moment later the young woman became deathly still once more, as the pad of his thumb pressed warningly into her collarbone.

"I said that you may not call me that, Hatake-san. If Konoha shinobi had any sense of manners or propriety whatsoever, you might realize that inquiring further would be indelicate." She said stiffly, retreating to the relative comfort of the traditional mannerisms taught to all Iwa kunoichi.

"Ah, yes, I forgot that all Iwa shinobi have sticks shoved up their assses." He said, his tone mild despite the insulting nature of the words.

Before Sakura could bristle at the affront, she had suddenly been released and pushed forward off the tree branch. She barely had enough time to collect herself and land with both feet firmly planted on the ground, before Hatake had noiselessly lit upon the earth beside her.

"Alright then. That was a nice little detour, but we really must be moving on now." He said cheerfully, his single eye crinkling slightly in a bastardized smile.

Sakura grimaced bitterly.

"I hate you, Hatake. I don't know what you Konoha bastards want from me, but I swear on my ancestors' graves that you won't be getting it."

"You might want to take that back, Sakura-chan, or your ancestors will be haunting you for the next fifty years or so." He said mildly.

"_Bite me_." She growled.

The look he gave her then almost made her shrink back slightly.

"I love it when a woman talks dirty..."

If Sakura had been a lesser female, she might have flushed brilliant red and spluttered for several minutes before coming up with a credible response. As it was, she felt her cheeks warm slightly, and the urge to avert her gaze from his was overwhelming.

"Shut up, you fucking pervert, before I plant my foot halfway through your parietal lobe." She hissed instead.

"Oh, are we going to play doctor now? Kinky. I'll play the patient and you pay the neurosurgeon."

Now Sakura really did flush red, and she could practically feel the waves of amusement radiating off of the jounin, even as waves of embarrassment radiated off of her.

"This is sexual harassment, Hatake. Isn't there some law against this in your charter?" She managed to spit out at last.

"You can't harass the willing." He only replied, and Sakura's nostrils flared with pure fury then.

With the speed and strength that can only be lent to an infuriated woman—and this speed and strength can rival even chakra, at its height—she brought her hand up and nailed Hatake right in the masked face.

Within a blur and a moment, her hands were pinned behind her back and she was unable to follow up on the punch, but that was irrelevant.

"I hope I broke your nose." She said, her tone a mixture of pure vindictive satisfaction.

* * *

_**A/N: I'M SORRY . I had pretty intense writer's block for a while on this chapter, and then I was on a several-day backpacking trip in the backcountry with my sister (which was SO fun and relaxing, but obviously there's no internet/computer access in the Rawah Wilderness). Anyway, tell me what you think of this chapter! I know it's rather slow-moving so far, and I actually intended for them to get to Konoha 2 chapters ago lol...but rest assured, next chapter they're ACTUALLY getting to Konoha, where things will start to heat up between Kakashi and Sakura.**_

_**PS: Can you guys guess who Monkey is? I tried to make it kind of obvious, but it's not particularly glaring, so some people might not have gotten it...**_


	7. Transcension

Chapter Seven

Transcension

Upon beholding the Konohagakure Community Hospital for the first time, Sakura felt a certain amount of shame on behalf of her own village. The building was twice the size of Iwa's hospital, and there wasn't a crumbling brick or a spot of mildew in sight. The entire facility was perfectly clean, freshly painted, and fully staffed, in stark contrast to the hospital Sakura had spent the majority of her adolescence working in.

In fact, the whole of the village was large, prosperous and beautiful, so far as the kunoichi could tell—it was certainly a more cheerful place than Iwa, as loathe as she was to admit any inferiority to Leaf.

Upon arriving at the front gates of the village, Sakura had quickly been more securely bound—with a chakra-inhibitor that was more restrictive than the thin paper bracelet that had almost allowed her escape—and handed off to a second squadron of ANBU. If Konoha's protocol for returning platoons was anything like Iwa's, the young woman guessed that Hatake's squad was headed to the Hokage's office for a debriefing.

Instead of leading her to a prison cell at Konoha's ANBU headquarters, Sakura had been equal parts surprised and non-plussed when the squadron had escorted her directly to the village hospital.

As they passed through the glass doors at the front of the building, Sakura was overwhelmed with the nostalgic sensation of cool, antiseptic-scented air washing over her. She swept her gaze around the waiting room, noting that it was empty of patients—unsurprising, seeing as how it was one in the afternoon, and she assumed that this was the civilian wing of the hospital. Even the reception desk was empty, which Sakura found somewhat suspicious. Even if this was the civilian sector of the building, and it was the middle of the afternoon, the desk should have been manned at all times.

Her observations were interrupted by the approach of a stunning blonde woman whom Sakura immediately recognized, not only from her Bingo Book page, but from countless hours studying medical techniques. The kunoichi felt her breath leave her and her knees go weak, as she beheld the woman whom she had idolized for the majority of her youth.

The Sannin Tsunade may have been a Konoha shinobi, but she was renowned throughout all the elemental nations as the greatest medical ninja of all time. She had pioneered dozens—perhaps even hundreds—of innovative and revolutionary techniques, and had practically rebuilt Konoha's medical program from the ground up. She and Sakura may have been on different sides of a war, but that didn't stop the younger kunoichi from worshiping the ground Senju Tsunade walked on.

As the ANBU took a step back, allowing Sakura to come face-to-face with the famous kunoichi, Tsunade pursed her crimson lips and cast the younger woman a cool look.

"You have been brought to Konoha at my request, Haruno Sakura." She said, her tone frosty and her amber eyes bordering on arctic.

Sakura's own eyes narrowed, as her formidable intellect attempted to puzzle out this statement. She wasn't left in curiosity long, as Tsunade's next words clarified many of the mysteries Sakura had been attempting to solve over the past few days.

"I require firsthand information from a qualified medical ninja of Iwagakure."

As she said this, the Sannin waved a hand at the ANBU squadron in an obvious dismissal. When Sakura didn't feel their chakra signatures disappear immediately, she glanced over her shoulder to see that the platoon was still standing behind her.

"Tsunade-Hime, we are under strict orders from Hokage-sama not to allow the prisoner out of our sight while she is within the village walls." The captain replied uneasily.

Tsunade's eyebrows clashed together like thunderbolts, and the atmosphere in the waiting room grew uncomfortably strained.

"This is _my_ hospital, and I won't have a bunch of cloak-and-dagger buffoons wandering around disturbing the patients!" She snapped, her tone brooking no argument.

The ANBU all shifted apprehensively, and after a moment of charged silence, the captain gave ground.

"As you wish, Hime. We will be stationed outside the hospital entrance."

With that, the signatures all flickered away, and the two kunoichi were left alone in the hospital waiting room.

It took all of the young woman's formidable will to meet Tsunade's calculating stare, and to not fidget under the scrutiny of arguably the most powerful kunoichi in the world.

"Come with me." She said at last, abruptly breaking the silence and turning on her heel to head off towards a set of doors marked 'employees only'.

Sakura cautiously followed, falling in step with the older woman as they headed down a mostly-empty hallway towards what she guessed to be the hospital's research laboratories.

"You're obviously the most qualified medical shinobi in Iwa, which is why I requested you specifically." Tsunade said, her tone brisk and clipped to match her pace. "I assure you that your cooperation in this matter is not optional."

Sakura's mouth tightened at the blatant threat, but she said nothing in response. The fact that Tsunade had 'requested her specifically' implied that the Konoha shinobi had been tracking her for some time before her capture, and that the events of the past few weeks—as random as they had seemed—had been orchestrated. This realization made Sakura burn with anger; the fact that she had been manipulated so easily by her enemies...had Magumi and his children been but a ploy to corner Sakura in the right place at the right time?

For every question that Tsunade had just answered, Sakura could think of a dozen more.

Her racing thoughts were quieted somewhat as they entered the laboratories, and she once more felt shame for the state of Iwa's facilities; these labs were state-of-the-art, and although the one Tsunade had led her to was empty, the room showed signs of recent use, and the pink-haired kunoichi couldn't help but feel jealous of a village that had fully-staffed research and medical facilities.

Tsunade crossed the room to a set of filing cabinets, and after a moment withdrew a thin manila folder, labeled with a crimson sticker proclaiming the sensitive nature of the documents inside.

"I want you to tell me everything you know about this new strain of venom Iwa shinobi are coating their kunai with, and I want an antidote." The woman proclaimed, without preamble, as she shoved the folder at Sakura.

The kunoichi's brilliant green eyes widened, as she flicked through the documents in the folder. From what she could gather from a quick scan, over forty shinobi had been admitted to Konoha's hospital in the past month with cases of poisoning. All of the shinobi had been cut with kunai belonging to Iwa ninja, and their symptoms were identical—vivid hallucinations, similar in effect to a potent genjutsu, followed by paralysis, seizures, and death within twenty-four hours. So far no headway had been made by Konoha's medical personnel in identifying the poison or its antidote.

As she read over the symptoms, Sakura pursed her lips and shook her head absently. Of course, to really get a reading on the poison and its effects, she would have to examine an affected patient, but so far as she could tell, she had never come across this particular toxin before. Not that she would supply Konoha with the desired information, even if she had had it.

"I've never seen a poison with the described effects." She said at last.

Tsunade's expression became thunderous.

"I have ways of getting the truth out of you, Haruno. If you don't supply us with the antidote, the gloves _will_ come off."

Sakura suddenly felt very tired. Not just from the strain of the past week—though that was considerable—but tired in the bone-deep, aching kind of way that made her just want to curl up and sleep until all her problems went away.

Her proudly-erect posture slumped slightly, and a single dirty and nicked hand moved to massage her temples.

"I don't give a shit what you do to me. You can torture me for weeks, months, years; and it won't change the fact that I don't have any better idea than you of what this poison is."

Tsunade's forbidding expression faltered slightly, and she seemed slightly put-off by the Iwa kunoichi's obvious sincerity. But after a moment her resolve—and her amber eyes—hardened, and lightning-fast her hand reached out to clamp around Sakura's upper arm.

"I don't believe you. You are the foremost medical ninja in your village; you should have intimate knowledge of all poisons in common use among the shinobi of Iwa, particularly as an ANBU operative."

Sakura shook her head in silent denial, even as she allowed herself to be practically dragged out of the laboratory and back towards the front doors—and the ANBU squadron waiting there.

"You _will _assist us in formulating an antidote." Tsunade said, even as she deposited Sakura with the captain, who had come to attention at the slug summoner's appearance.

Sakura almost wanted to laugh—if Konoha's greatest medics couldn't come up with an antidote, what made them think an Iwa shinobi would be able to? She had just as much foreknowledge of the poison as Tsunade and her team did, and if Sakura was being honest—which injured her pride immensely—Konoha's medical team was far superior to Iwa's. But she remained silent, merely shaking her head in a silent denial.

"Take her to ANBU HQ, but don't hand her over to T&I. Yet."

And with that, the legendary kunoichi turned on her heel and swept back into the hospital, the glass doors slamming shut behind her.

* * *

Sakura looked up from the list she was formulating, and leveled a glare at the Konoha medical technician standing across the table from her. The woman quailed slightly beneath the kunoichi's unblinking stare, and looked unabashedly grateful that Sakura was chained to the laboratory table.

"It's been six hours. I'm thirsty." She said abruptly, setting her pen down on the table with a 'clack'.

The woman swallowed heavily, before bobbing her head in a nervous gesture of ascent.

"I will be right back, Haruno-san." She said quietly, before striding out of the lab, obviously grateful to be removed from Sakura's presence.

After a fitful—but undisturbed—night of sleep at ANBU HQ, Sakura had been roused at the crack of dawn and 'escorted' to the hospital, where several members of Tsunade's team had been waiting for her. They informed her that the princess had 'requested' that she formulate a list of all toxins used by Iwa shinobi with effects similar to the ones described. Sakura had agreed readily enough; after all, Konoha was aware of nearly all the poisons exclusive to her village, at this point.

The medics had so far denied her request to see one of the affected patients. Sakura had fought to keep her temper in check over the refusal, but after a few moments realized that Konoha was the only party with anything to lose by withholding information. And so here she sat, formulating a list of poisons that was no doubt already securely ensconced within Konoha's intelligence database.

Two minutes and another half-sheet of paper later, Sakura set her pen down on the laboratory table and stood up, stretching out her legs and suppressing a yawn. She attempted to roll her shoulders, as well, but the metal cuff chaining her to the table restricted this movement. Shooting the chain a venomous look, she was moving to sit back down, when a vial sitting on a rack across the table caught her attention.

Her cat-like eyes quickly flew to the label on the vial, and a wide grin spread across her face. Hydrofluoric acid. Shooting a covert look at the laboratory doors, the kunoichi wasted no time in making a grab for the vial. She winced as the reach forced her to chafe her wrist against the handcuff, but she didn't stop straining. _Just a centimeter further...!_

And then suddenly her fingers were wrapped around the vial, and she had the bottle of acid. Carefully, she eased the cork off, and drawing the chain taught—she didn't want her hand anywhere near the contents of the bottle—the young woman carefully dribbled a sizable amount of acid over the chain of the handcuff.

The acrid scent that suddenly filled the lab was nearly unbearable, and Sakura had to fight not to gag, even as the acid quickly and efficiently ate away at the metal. The excess fluid had dripped off of the chain and onto the floor, and Sakura absently noted to smoking hole that was beginning to form in the tiles. After a few moments longer, the kunoichi gave the chain an experimental tug, and was delighted when the severely weakened metal snapped, allowing her to step away from the table.

Wasting no time, she grabbed a lab coat which one of the technicians had left draped across a desk chair, and threw it on, buttoning the jacket up all the way to conceal her dirty and blood-smeared ANBU uniform. Then she grabbed the clipboard the technician had left behind and strode confidently out of the laboratory.

To her immense relief, she didn't encounter any technicians or nurses on her way out of the research wing. She had just reached the beginning of the ER wing—which she knew from careful observation had a service door leading outside—when she was confronted with the familiar sight of three nurses and a medic racing down the hall, pulling on gloves and surgery masks.

"Sensei! You're needed in operation room 2209!" One of the nurses exclaimed. "We've got an injured ANBU platoon, and one of them in critical condition from Unknown Toxin 417."

Sakura froze, eyes wide. The kunoichi in her was screaming at her to knock out the nurses and the medic and make a break for the service door. But the clinical researcher in her was screaming at her to haul ass to operation room 2209, and observe the effects of Unknown Toxin 417—aka the whole reason she was in this mess in the first place. It was the human being in her that broke her indecision at last; she was a medic, and medics were meant to save lives. The fact that those lives belonged to Konoha shinobi was something she could disregard. For now.

"Lead the way." She said at last, attempted to exude confidence even as the nurse handed her a set of gloves and a surgical mask.

As it turned out, operation room 2209 was just around the corner. When Sakura stepped into the room, she immediately felt what was left of her reservations fall away; she was in her element, and it didn't matter that she was technically a prisoner of war in hostile territory.

Crossing to the nearest operating table, where a wheezing ANBU was being hooked up to an IV drip and heart monitor by several frantically-working nurses, she removed the man's mask and checked his vitals.

"Blood pressure reading?" She snapped at one of the nurses.

"Sixty over forty, and dropping fast." The woman gasped, sweat beading at her brows even as she and another nurse applied pressure to a wide slash on the ANBU's shoulder.

Sakura nodded and removed her gloves, green medical chakra already gathering in her palms. She nearly grinned at the sensation, after the past two days of having her abilities suppressed.

It only took a little under ten minutes to heal all of the shinobi's injuries, and Sakura slowly let up on the input of chakra, even as she nudged his red blood cells to begin reproducing more quickly.

"Patient is in stable condition, Sensei." One of the nurses proclaimed, even as the ANBU's heartbeat steadied on the monitor, and his blood pressure began to return to normal.

"The other squad members?" She inquired, accepting the chakra-replenishing pill one of the nurses handed her.

"They're being attended by several chunin medics in room 2208, Sensei, but they will need you in room 2210. The patient has been hit with Unknown Toxin 417."

Sakura nodded, and quickly made her way to a door on the left side of the room which she could only pray led to room 2210; it would seem suspicious, no doubt, if a doctor who supposedly worked at this hospital didn't know where anything was.

Upon stepping across the threshold of the room, Sakura immediately knew that she was in the right place; the smell of blood was heavy in the air, accompanied by the erratic beeps of a heart monitor and the frantic chatter of the nurses and medics crowded around the operating table.

She moved over to the table, already eying the patient with a clinical eye. His mask had been removed, and Sakura noted that he had the trademark dark features and aristocratic looks of an Uchiha. This place was simply crawling with them, she observed dryly. He was perspiring heavily, and as she watched, his eyes rolled back in his head and he released a blood-curdling scream.

As two of the chunin medics struggled to hold him in place as he thrashed, one of the nurses handed Sakura a syringe filled with what she assumed was a sedative. Even as she pushed up his sleeve and inserted the needle with the ease of long practice, the man's dark eyes focused on her face, and she was disconcerted when tears began pouring out of his eyes.

"Dad, please don't hurt her..." He croaked, his eyes cloudy and his mind obviously somewhere else. "Please!" He sobbed, trembling and thrashing even as the chunin struggled to restrain him.

In less than a minute the sedative came into effect, and the ANBU slumped down onto the operating table, his eyes sliding shut. Pale, her mouth clamped in a thin line, Sakura proceeded to flush his body with a diagnostic, and to close up all of his wounds, including the poison's entrance-point. She didn't recognize the toxin coursing through his blood, and without an antidote there was really nothing more to be done.

She stepped away from the table, sighing.

''There's not much more to be done." She said, and the two medics nodded in agreement.

Just as Sakura was about to request a blood sample from the injured shinobi, the doors to the operation room slammed open to admit an infuriated Tsunade, flanked by two ANBU. Immediately, the two shinobi lunged for Sakura, and she only managed to evade them by ducking lightning-fast onto the other side of the operating table.

"Watch it, morons! This is a hospital, not a battle ground!" She roared, ignoring the fact that she had no jurisdiction here as a shinobi _or_ a medical professional. Retreating behind the persona of a medic caring for her patient was comforting. "You'll upset the patient's stability!"

The nurses had all scattered to the corners of the room, pale and frightened. They seemed entirely confused, their eyes darting back and forth between Sakura, the ANBU, and a fuming Tsunade. The blonde woman looked about ready to rupture a blood vessel, but when the ANBU made to attempt a second attack, she held up a hand.

"No!" She barked, and the men immediately stilled. Her amber eyes zeroed in on Sakura, the the pink-haired woman had to struggle not to take a step back. "Haruno. Outside. Now."

"Um..." One of the braver nurses asserted herself then. "There are still a few minor abrasions that need attending to, Tsunade-hime. Ah...it would be best if Haruno-sensei were to stay here..."

"Haruno-_sensei_?"

Tsunade swept her eyes up and down Sakura's form, and her face grew even more clouded with rage—if this was actually possible—when she took note of the pilfered lab jacket.

"Pah. Fine, but make it quick, if you please, _Sensei_."

Sakura swallowed heavily, and still eying the two ANBU warily, moved closer to the operating table so she could continue treating their comrade. The heavy gazes of the shinobi, plus the sannin, were enough to make Sakura sweat, as she proceeded to close up the remaining minor abrasions. Within a minute, she was finished, and she stepped back from the table. A tiny amount of tension in the room drained away.

Sakura had to keep from scoffing, then. Did they really think she would go to all the trouble of bringing this poor bastard back from the brink of death, only to injure or kill him? Ridiculous. As the nurses and chunin medics all converged on the table to take blood samples and attempted to make the patient as comfortable as possible, Sakura felt a hand close around her elbow, and swiveled her head to glare at the ANBU now grasping her arm, even as he frog-marched her out of the operating room.

With a jolt, she recognized the pattern on the ANBU's mask, and realized that he was none other than Captain Hatake. Muttering obscenities to herself, Sakura unwillingly made her way into the hall outside the operating room. A moment later, Tsunade and the second ANBU had joined them.

"Inform the platoons that the prisoner has been apprehended." The blonde ordered, and the ANBU closest to her nodded and disappeared in a swirl of leaves, causing the blonde to make an irritated noise about the mess left on the floor.

Then, Sakura had Tsunade's full attention, as the sannin crossed her arms and turned to face the younger kunoichi. The rage was gone from her face, replaced by a much more perplexing expression; after a moment of thought, Sakura labeled it as 'evaluating'

"So, do you always waltz around enemy villages healing injured shinobi? Or is this a new hobby?" She said at last, one eyebrow quirked in a manner that was at once questioning and forbidding.

Sakura didn't deign to respond, instead focusing on shaking Hatake's grip off her arm, glaring as she did so. He willingly released his grip, but not before allowing his fingers to whisper down the bare skin of her wrist in a millisecond long moment in which Sakura found herself breathless.

To hide the fact that his unexpected—and highly disturbing—action had ruffled her, she only increased the viciousness of her glare. He was obviously attempting to mess with her head.

Well, Sakura thought vindictively, it wasn't going to work. She had experience with people who played mindgames, and she wasn't going to fall for any of his.

The blonde kunoichi seemed to have missed this fleeting exchange, because she was still staring expectantly at the young woman across from her. Sakura sighed. There was no point in lying.

"I was attempting escape." She growled, with the concise efficiency of a person used to giving official reports. "I was almost out of the ER wing when I ran into a nurse who said there was an injured platoon that had been brought in, so I came here and healed the guy."

She deliberately left out the fact that she had known beforehand that the ANBU had been poisoned with Unknown Toxin 417; although she had resolved to tell Tsunade the truth, she had no inclination to pick apart her thought process for the woman's benefit.

"Why?" The question was fired almost instantly, and caught Sakura off-balance.

"Wh—_why?_" She spluttered. "Because I'm a medic, that's why!"

"You are also a shinobi. A shinobi, I might add, from a village that is currently at war with Konoha."

Sakura clenched her jaw, setting it in a stubborn line.

"If you are suggesting disloyalty on my part, let me assure you that I'd rather die than betray my village. But that doesn't change the fact that I'm a healer; it's my duty to help people, and that...that transcends alliances and enemies and...and petty border disputes!"

By the end of this, Sakura was practically fuming, her impassioned declaration serving to whip color into her cheeks and cause her teeth to clench together defiantly.

"Sorry, perhaps you would have preferred if I had let him bleed out like a stuck pig." She snarled. "But I'm not so petty as to allow a man to die in front of me just because he's sided with the wrong village."

In the ensuing silence, Sakura realized that despite her declaration of undying loyalty to Iwa, what she had just said would certainly have fallen under the category of 'treasonous', back in her home village. But she couldn't manage to lie to herself, and believe that every word of it hadn't been sincere.

This side of her, she realized with some chagrin, was the same side that had urged her to help Magumi's sons, despite what her village would have had to say on the matter. She felt at once proud of herself, and like bashing her head into a wall.

She was so stupid.

After a moment more of the silence stretching onwards, Sakura peeled her gaze away from where she had stolidly fixed it on the wall, and managed to meet Tsunade's eyes. She was shocked to see no anger or even irritation there; the only thing filling her gaze was a faint glimmer of..._respect_?

"Well. As enlightening as this conversation has been, I believe we're done for the day. Captain, escort Haruno back to ANBU HQ. I'll expect your observations on the effects of the poison tomorrow, kunoichi." She finished, before turning on her heel and sweeping off down the hallway, leaving Sakura feeling mildly flabbergasted.

She had expected to be berated intensely, if not beaten or tossed into solitary confinement, as punishment for her escape attempt. She had certainly _not _expected to earn a portion of the legendary medic's respect, however small.

Feeling slightly dazed, Sakura allowed herself to be practically dragged out the hospital's back entrance. She didn't even flinch when Hatake tied a blindfold around her eyes, as the ANBU had done yesterday upon escorting her to HQ. After all, it wouldn't do for an enemy shinobi to have information regarding the location of Konoha's black ops' headquarters.

She only regained her wits when she felt a hand move to encircle her waist

"What are you—"

The rest of her inquiry was cut off by the familiar sensation of being squeezed through a tube, which always accompanied a teleportation jutsu. When the sensation cleared—Sakura couldn't really rely on her sight to inform her whether or not they had arrived—the kunoichi was outraged to find herself entrapped against Hatake's chest, his arm still fixed firmly about her waist.

The feeling of helplessness caused by the impairment of her vision, combined with being manhandled by an enemy was enough to have her hissing and spitting.

"Let me go, bastard." She growled, once several moments had elapsed and she felt no sign of his arm moving from its position.

She felt the lazy chuckle reverberate through Hatake's armored chest, and tried to convince herself that the shiver running down her spine was simply the result of a draft blowing through the room. Speaking of the room...

"Are we there? Because if so, could you please kindly _let me the fuck go_?"

There was a snort of laughter from somewhere close by, and Sakura jumped. She hadn't noticed a chakra signature in the room besides Hatake's.

"Let the poor girl go, Captain. She's past the point where she still needs the blindfold, anyway."

Sakura was good with voices, and so she quickly recognized this one as belonging to the Uchiha woman in Hatake's platoon. Now that she had confirmation that she wouldn't be knifed in the gut for it, Sakura wrenched away from Hatake and wrestled her blindfold off. The moment her verdant emerald eyes were exposed, she turned them to glare at the ANBU captain. Behind Hatake, she caught sight Neko standing at the entrance to the corridor of holding cells, obviously on guard duty.

Turning back to Hatake, she fixed him with her most disdainful look.

"Dick." She muttered, almost sensing his smug expression through the two layers of masks covering his face.

With that, she turned on her heel and stormed off down the corridor towards her cell, and marched right in, slamming the barred door shut behind her. She tried to ignore the fact that she had just effectively thrown _herself _in prison, and instead tried to focus on the satisfying crash of the door against its frame.

_**A/N: Whew, sorry guys. In my opinion, this chapter is a little sub-par, besides being late. I just couldn't find much inspiration. Anyway, school is starting for me on Friday, which means updates will be more infrequent. Expect them now once or twice a month.**_

_**PS: I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't proofread this chapter, so please inform me of any typos! **_


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